[Hersch]

I've seen a few topics during my time here at RSC about firemaking and how pointless it is. I've seen that we have all pretty much arrived at the consensus that firemaking is indeed pointless. I won't bore you all with another topic asking if firemaking is pointless, when I've seen we all agree it is. Instead I ask, why doesn't Jagex do anything to fix this problem? The last update that somewhat rectified the firemaking issue was the Adze. That occurred quite some time ago. I just fail to understand why Jagex doesn't improve firemaking and make it useful. Is it because there are other things that need updating or is there truly nothing to add to firemaking? Personally, I think it's a little of both. Jagex is obviously busy with other updates and frankly what can you do with firemaking besides burning things?

I just don't know what else could be added, but the firemaking skill still needs a revamp so it's not just another pointless skill.

[iDrew]

I always hope that JageX will do something to Firemaking having this massive update, where people will actually like the skill
But it just never happens.

[The duck]

If you would firemaking with other skills (Firemaking + ranged = Easy way to get fire arrows?) it would have some potential, but for now, it's the most useless skill on RuneScape, with only the Inferno Adze and the Firemaking Skillcape as highlights.

[Hedgehog]

Basically I think Jagex are finding it difficult to make Firemaking useful, not to mention they're busy with other things, as you said. They tried the Adze, which essentially just made it easier to train Firemaking and Woodcutting (if you don't care about keeping your logs, you don't have to bank as often). The thing is, I'm not sure what they can really do with this skill. They need to incorporate it more with other skills, as The duck stated. The only problem is that they might as well rename Firemaking "Resource-wasting," since that's really all it is. No one wants to train a skill in which they're simply throwing away logs that could either be sold or Fletched and then sold/alched. The only real reason to train Firemaking is for total level or the skill cape. People want incentives for their skills, but it's difficult to create an incentive for a skill whose basis is wasting your materials.

[DaveC]

I'm with Hedge on this one. Jagex are struggling to develop it to any great amount. I sure as hell can't think of anything which could make it more useful, as such.

But I disagree with the statement "Useless skill". It's a cheap, easy 99 which gives you a pretty nice cape and a pretty cool emote to go with it. The only downside is your wrist will probably kill for months afterwards. I wouldn't be surprised if it gave some people RSI.

[Maxman]

To be honest, it's close up to Jagex's next step in updating skills. There's been woodcutting, mining... and then there should be firemaking. I can't think of anything that Jagex could possibly do to improve firemaking, but it does need a revamp for sure.

Maybe a mini game? More items to use?

[iDrew]

Maxman, on 05 November 2009 - 12:08 AM, said:

Maybe a mini game?

That would be great, mass burnings of certain objects to provide experience, without the mind numbing continuous clicking

[Arno]

They should make it so that the skill actually provides the player with raw material. Like, you would light a fire and do something to it, and it gives you some kind of magic log, which could then tie into the Fletching/Construction skill. Kind of like the Bob The Cat random, where you "uncook" fish on a blue fire. Well, this would be similar, you would be able to turn an oak log into a "magic oak log" (or something like that). With this magic oak log, you could make magic oak longbows/shortbows, which give additional experience and do more damage in battle. These "magic X logs" could then also be used in Construction, where it gives regular furniture magical capabilities (such as giving you an EXP lamp every X-days, allowing you to switch your spellbook, bind runes, ... ).

To unlock this ability in the firemaking skill, you would have to do a quest, obviously. And it should be unlocked at a pretty high level, to motivate people to train the skill. I'm thinking ... 60-65. If you have 99 firemaking, you can make "magic magic logs" (for lack of a better name ... you could also call them "enchanted magic logs" or "altered magic logs", whatever). These logs would be the most expensive to buy, but they would also render the strongest bow (safe the Darkbow and Crossbows with enchanted arrows). This way, they would also put the "old" bows back to good use, since they've been getting rather dominated by the Xbows and Darkbows. Just an idea I had.

[Shaannee]

Not much you can do as far as revamping "Firemaking".

I think it's a forever-lame skill. I mean honestly, what more can you do with Firemaking as a skill? Maybe if they revamped it enough and changed the entire idea of the skill, but I don't see that happening.

[Thdyingbreed]

Eh it has one use and that would be to keep the hand cannon from breaking which is pretty much the best ranged weapon in the game imo.

[Hedgehog]

Arno, on 04 November 2009 - 09:56 AM, said:

They should make it so that the skill actually provides the player with raw material. Like, you would light a fire and do something to it, and it gives you some kind of magic log, which could then tie into the Fletching/Construction skill. Kind of like the Bob The Cat random, where you "uncook" fish on a blue fire. Well, this would be similar, you would be able to turn an oak log into a "magic oak log" (or something like that). With this magic oak log, you could make magic oak longbows/shortbows, which give additional experience and do more damage in battle. These "magic X logs" could then also be used in Construction, where it gives regular furniture magical capabilities (such as giving you an EXP lamp every X-days, allowing you to switch your spellbook, bind runes, ... ).

To unlock this ability in the firemaking skill, you would have to do a quest, obviously. And it should be unlocked at a pretty high level, to motivate people to train the skill. I'm thinking ... 60-65. If you have 99 firemaking, you can make "magic magic logs" (for lack of a better name ... you could also call them "enchanted magic logs" or "altered magic logs", whatever). These logs would be the most expensive to buy, but they would also render the strongest bow (safe the Darkbow and Crossbows with enchanted arrows). This way, they would also put the "old" bows back to good use, since they've been getting rather dominated by the Xbows and Darkbows. Just an idea I had.

Certainly an interesting idea, the only thing is it doesn't seem practical that burning a log would make it magical. But hey, this is RuneScape.

I do like the idea though. As I said, Firemaking needs an incentive, because it currently doesn't have one (other than total levels and a skill cape, but every skill has that). The only plausible way to make Firemaking useful is to have Firemaking do something other than waste your materials, which is what you're proposing. It's also always nice to see some older weapons being used rather than everyone using the same few newer ones. Plus tying it into Construction would increase its usefulness even more. I'm not sure a mini-game would work, as Max suggested. They already introduced the Beacon Network mini-game, which ties into the Adze and other rewards. Not sure what else they could do in terms of a mini-game.

This post has been edited by Hedgehog: 04 November 2009 - 09:21 AM

[turbo d16z6]

firemaking is pretty much useless right now but i think it can be fixed like.

Add being able to build a fire play or stuff that requires fire and have like a certain level to do it like lvl 5 lets you light candles lvl 20 lets you light a stick so you can go through dark areas. lvl 55 lets you light a fireplace etc.

And like make it so you can be able to use fire to lure the monsters when your doing slayer tasks and what not.

Which the part where i said be able to build a fire can be used in agility like your being chased by monsters and your running away then you find a stick and a tinderbox and you have to make a fire to cut off the ropes so the monsters would fall but you also have to have a high enough firemaking level so it won't take as long to make a fire.

You can use the idea like one dude said and have flaming arrows or axes etc. have add a burn affect in the game And that if you don't hurry up it would melt part of your armor and you would have to go get it fixed at a shop for a fee depending on the type of armor it is. But If u have enough water vials you can get rid of the fire and depending on how much your armor got burned is how much your defense bonus dropped and have a burning defense bonus on each type of armor so you know which has the best defense resistance.

pretty sure I can come up with more stuff.

[Aragon]

In the Community Voices blog: Which skill should Jagex focus on now and Why? I expressed my opinion towards the skill.

Quote

I think that Jagex should revise the Firemaking skill. It is possibly one of the most boring, useless and underused skills in the game. The only way to really train the skill is by just lighting fires in a straight line for ages. Jagex could make the skill ten times more interesting by adding a few more ways to train it. A firemaking mini game possibly, or maybe another long quest related to firemaking. At the least they could make firemaking a bit more used within the game. If Jagex really put their minds to it, they could make firemaking one of the best skills in the game!

That's basically all my thoughts summed up on the skill. It desperately needs an improvement.

[i d e t a i]

Yes firemaking is highly pointless, as you can only use it for what
- Pyre
- Temple trekking
- Inferno Adze
- Ring of fire

the list goes on if firemaking is such a pointless skill [notice the sarcasm] why don't you formally complain on the runescape forums?

[Aragon]

Cirth, on 04 November 2009 - 01:19 PM, said:

There is this minigame called 'Shades of Mort'ton'...

Yes, but if I remember correctly that isn't the most fun game around... maybe if they revamped that game to make it more exciting, and involve the Firemaking skill more?

[Hyperlide]

not sure if this has been suggested, it kinda hit me and seemed simple:

different tinderboxes.

off the top of my head, tinderboxes could be crafted by certain products like silver, limestone, gold, granite, iron, etc (not sure how it would help light faster but w/e"
then you could make certain ashes that could be added to the boxes, making a tinderbox. examples of different type of ashes could be ashes mixed with cinnamon, chocolate, and other ground up items.

this would branch out into different skills like woodcut, firemaking, crafting, maybe even herblore.

[Bolshevik]

I don't think there was ever a point in which the firemaking skill was actually useful, rather than it being at some point. The only positive option that it has is to allow you to acquire an Inferno Adze at ninety-two firemaking, but that requires quite a bit of work just to get there. Firemaking is a skill that really has no end-game, nothing for you to actually do out of it, other than just being able to burn different logs an increment levels. A revamp of the skill would be awesome, adding in certain facets that would allow you to play games or something, ANYTHING just to liven the skill up and make it actually more interesting. Firemaking has become a nonsense skill that people only really get for the cape, and spend no time afterwards training it [unless they are woodcutting with the adze]; it's desperately one of the various skills that needs a tune-up in order to make it more useful in the future, even making it necessary for some quests or something.

[Quesoman I]

Everyone has noticed the uproar the new skill is causing. Some ideas are not even considered.
Imagine for example firemaking had never been a skill and they were going to release a skill that had 'never been done before'
If someone gave the log-burning skill as an idea in the forums, they would laugh at it: 'burning logs of different levels over and over again, whilst getting nothing in exchange, when you can fletch or sell them? what a stupid idea!' but it exists, and we have it perfectly assimilated.
I have seen much better ideas than firemaking as a skill out there, this is why this skill is nearly pointless, it should be a sub-skill of something else.

Just my opinion though.

This post has been edited by Quesoman I: 04 November 2009 - 02:26 PM

[Hersch]

DaveC, on 04 November 2009 - 07:49 AM, said:

But I disagree with the statement "Useless skill". It's a cheap, easy 99 which gives you a pretty nice cape and a pretty cool emote to go with it. The only downside is your wrist will probably kill for months afterwards. I wouldn't be surprised if it gave some people RSI.

I would still say it's useless. Every 99 gives you a cape and an emote and typically something to go along with it. In firemaking this is not the case, helping to make it effectively useless. Just because it's cheap and easy, it doesn't mean the skill has uses because in reality it has few that are worthwhile.

[Mog Time]

Well I recently got 99 firemaking, costing me 21m From 95-99 alone, so no it's not a worthless cape to me.