New Pest Control Update
Hi, this is crowlion here. Delarue64 has given me permission to write about this new update.
Jagex from Runescape, has listened to complaints from many of the users and have come up with a solution that they felt was good for the game. There are many pros and cons to it and I shall go through a few.
Before, there was only 1 boat for players to board and the condition was that you required a combat level over 40 to participate. PC has always been a very good way for people to improve their combat skills, especially for those that had pure accounts (as the hitpoints did not rise with the chosen skill by as much). What would happen is that pc clans were developed to help similar ranked high cb levels get the game over very quickly. I have played in games where the portals were often blasted in less than 30 seconds. Lower cb levels had no chance of getting their required 50 zeal (damage) until other lower levels arrived. Then the lower levels would attack the monsters only, which slowed the game. The higher level clan would then change worlds (after quite often abusing the lower levels, mind you some of the lower levels were often very cheeky).
Now pest control has changed so that there are 3 boats to choose from. One for lev 40+, another for 70+ and the last for 100+. I am over 100 cb, so I tried out the game soon after it had changed in the 100+ boat in world 78. The world was extremely laggy, but we managed to somehow win and received 4 pc points each for the efforts. That may seem good, but the rules have changed. 1 point is worth 65% less now, so the 4 points are in effect 140% more per game.
The problem is that the games now last 2 minutes. Also we did not win all of the time because new strategies needed to take place with the gradual releasing of the portals. Defence is now part of the strategy and closing gates becomes important. Most players, understandably, did not know what they were doing. The bonus is that there were no mixed combat levels (less sledging), and you did not have to world hop regularly (which saves time and effort). I did change to a less laggy world thanks to the suggestion by the clan that I am in “VMC”.
So, at this stage I would say overall that pc is less effective than before for gaining combat xp, although it is still an excellent way to do so.
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:10 pm
I found that pc is alot better and quicker then it use to be. I never liked pcing alot, but now it has made me want to get 99 stats. I agree with you crowlion, it is better being in the 100+ as it has less lower levels slowing down the games. VMC is a very good clan for doing pc with. On the other hand, the experience gain per 100 points is a bit of a let down though.If anyone else has had this happen to them too feel free to comment here.
July 24th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
I have played pest control a few times since and have noticed an improvement with how many of the games are going. There are more people that remember to close the gates and do some defence a well. It seems that you should kill the spinners whenever they pop up too. They no longer get distracted from the portal whenyou attack them and of course they poison you if you destroy the portal before them. What I like about the game now though is that is is much quicker to get the 100 points. I know that the points are worth much less, but it feels as though you are getting somewhere faster. Also, there are no concerns about missing out due to lack of zeal, as there is 4 times the amount of time to get it. I wonder whether the rules will change with this aspect later?
August 13th, 2007 at 11:03 am
I don’t think that they will ever change pest controls reward system back to the way they use to have it, as they never meant for pest control to be a major training mini game in the first place.
although I could be wrong (which I hope I am) I hope that they change it back to the way it use to be because games take forever now and the rewards arn’t worth the effort. 
August 14th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
pc is bad now ever sicne the update. always was bad but it has got worse now
August 15th, 2007 at 12:01 am
I am actually getting used to it now and find it not too bad. If you find a good world, then the games go relatively quick. As I mentioned before, there is no problems getting the 50 zeal. I wonder when Jagex will change it to 200 zeal as the minimum to get the points?
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:52 pm
They might change the zeal with a future update, I guess we’ll have to keep our eyes out on the runescape news.