I’ve been asked a few times how my “near” realtime stat listing works in the side bar of this blog. So, this post will be a low down on how it works, and also my opportunity to give credit to those people who helped contribute knowledge to its design. The first thing I want to point out is the difference between my blogging software and my blogging host. WordPress.org is freeware blogging software. WordPress.com is a free blogging host service.  Notice the difference between the .org and .com.

My stat lister, which is nameless at this point, is a php script that I call using a specially designed php widget for WordPress.org.  WordPress.com, the free web blogging site, is fairly restrictive when it comes to what widgets and plugins are available for use to their members. There are many reasons for this, but security and stability are main issues. This site, Runescape Thoughts, is hosted by a different company than WordPress.com. I still use the free WordPress.org blogging software, but by going through a third party hosting service, I have the ability to run a much better selection of widgets and plugins.

The php widget for WordPress.org that I use is called the Executable PHP widget and can be downloaded at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/php-code-widget/. It is basically a modified version of the Text widget, but allows the execution of php code in addition to plain text and html.  It is this widget that allows me to run my stat listing php script.

My stat listing script if fairly straight forward, though it is also truly a Frankenstein’s monster of a script. I used ideas from various scripts already available on the Internet and pieced together something that I was fairly happy with. The script itself contacts Runescape.com and downloads the lite version of their highscore database for my player name. At that point it saves a cached version of this information to my server and will not contact Runescape.com again for at least 90 minutes. There really is no need for my own personal stats to be updated anymore than this often. Then the script parses the data, runs a calculator to determine my combat level, and then displays the results in a nifty table.

Contacting Runescape.com normally should be easy. But for some unknown reason my particular host server is having problems with DNS and communicating directly with the subdomain http://hiscore.runescape.com. Thankfully, I found someone (Marshian007) on the forums of my web hosting provider who came up with a rather novel solution to this issue, though it did involve hardcoding an ip-address directly into the script. Parsing the downloaded data is fairly easy and I basically used the format offered at http://runescapegod.com/webmaster.php. The combat calculator is just a very basic mathematical script I wrote using the formula devised by Max Waterman, Fern1970, Helcaterian, Oblivion590, Hans980 and Benmarchant. The icons in the chart are copyright Jagex Limited and I am using them under the fair use stipulations of international copyright law.

When I am comfortable with the script’s stability I may offer a link to a .zip version of it for others to use and dissect. Right now it is still in testing, and I want to add comments to the script that also directly credit those people who contributed it its creation.

Absenm by the Grand Exchange

This blog is dedicated to any strange observations, ideas, or tips that I, Absenm, have about the Runescape world. But before I get to all that fun stuff I want to make a few things clear to the readers of this blog.

1) I understand a lot of people think that Runescape sucks. To that all I will say is “to-each-his-own.” I know there are many other very fine multi player role playing games on the internet. Many have better graphics. Many have better story lines. Many have this that or the other. That is wonderful. I am not saying that Runescape is best. I just happen to prefer Runescape over the others. It is simple, yet engaging. And a lot of people seem to agree with me. So to those of you out there who hate Runescape, please don’t waste my time with silly comments like “Runescape sucks.” Those will be deleted. However, if you wish to post mature, well constructed opinions about Runescape or others games then please be my guest.

2) I am not an expert about Runescape. I am not a noob either. I play when I have free time and as a very nice way to relax and blow off steam after a hard day at work. Right now I am a level 85 combat warrior. I have been playing for four years, three of those as a member. Sometimes I will play everyday for weeks. Sometimes I won’t even touch it for months. It comes and goes.

3) I am reasonably anti-social on the Runescape world. I don’t mean that in a bad way. I simply don’t do much chatting or directly interacting with other players. I guess you could say I am shy or simply distant. But in the end I have to deal with people all day, so when I am gaming I try to avoid interacting with other people. I give help when I can, but as I said above, I won’t stick around and chit-chat.

And that is about it for who I am. I can usually be found on World 103 (I do so love the party room) in Faladore.