Crystal Math Labs FAQs
Q: How do I add a player to any Virtual Hiscores list or somewhere else on this website?
A: Type the player name in the navigation bar at the top of the site and click track. Depending on whether or not the player was already tracked by CML, you will be prompted to "click here" to start tracking or be able to update the stats of a player already in the database. It is not rocket science, but to make it even easier to add a name you can use the text box and button below to add a player or update stats of an existing player on this site.
Q: An ironman account is not appearing with the ironman filter on. What do I do?
A: This is a known bug. The RuneScape hiscores do not provide a reliable way to check if a player is an ironman without sending three hiscore requests per update. This is not practical to do for every update of every player on the site. You can instantly fix this for a certain player using the form below. Alternatively, you can click the "wrong?" link next to their account type on the player's track page.
Q: What is updating?
A: Updating is when a user clicks the "CLICK TO UPDATE" button on any player's track page. This creates a "data point" that will show up on a player's graphs and be used to calculate experience gains for a given time period.
Q: What is a data point?
A: A data point on Crystal Math Labs is a group of data put in our database each time a player's track page gets "updated". This data point holds the player's name, time, xp for all skills, and ranks for all skills when the data point was created. Our server gets the xp and rank data from Old School RuneScape's lite hiscores page here. Daily experience gains are calculated by comparing the earliest data point within the last 24 hours and the latest data point. The same is true for calculating weekly, monthly, or whatever time period was specified. You can view raw data points using our API here.
Q: When do the days "reset"?
A: There is no "daily reset." Some experience trackers capture a player's experience once per day and simply show the differences between the two days. Crystal Math Labs uses a different paradigm: manual stat updates. This site displays the experience differences between the most recent and the earliest stat update within the time period (day, week, month, etc). You can update somebody's tracker now, and you can immediately see a change on their player tracker page and the "Current Top 30" page.
Q: Why do I have to update my tracker manually? Why not have it do it automatically?
A: Manual user updating is the only way to keep this tracker's data up to date without sending an obnoxious amount of requests to the oldschool.runescape.com server. There actually is an automatic updating mechanism built into this tracker, but not all players on this tracker qualify for automatic updating (see next question).
Q: How does the automatic updating system work?
A: To avoid unnecessary CPU and storage space usage, the automatic updater doesn't update every player on this site. Players will be automatically updated only when they meet the following criteria:
- (EHPMonth > 50 OR EHPWeek > 15 OR EHPDay > 6)
- and most recent data point was at least 22 hours ago OR
- (EHPMonth > 25 OR EHPWeek > 5)
- and most recent data point was at least 82 hours ago OR
- (EHPYear > 25 OR DataPoints < 5)
- and most recent data point was at least 30 days ago
A: Players can extend a day to actually include 30 hours worth of experience because of the 6 hour automatic logout on RuneScape. The idea is that a player stays logged in for 6 hours at the start, gets automatically logged out, and then plays the next 24 hours to add up to 30 hours. This is not done without properly timing two crucial updates on CrystalMathLabs. BEOFRE you get logged out after 6 hours, you MUST update your stats on CrystalMathLabs. This will create the first data point of your record. LESS THAN 24 hours after this, you MUST logout and update your stats on CML. Instead of keeping track of the exact time yourself, you can watch your track page where it says "Earliest" on your player track page with a time period of 1 day selected. You must logout and "update" before this time reaches 24 hours in order to squeeze in the last data point of your record.
Q: How are efficient hours played calculated?
A: EHP is an XP-based calculation for determining how many efficient hours were played on your account, and therefore, it is useful for comparing the value of different accounts that train different skills. What is considered efficient is based on the fastest known route to 200m in all skills. Efficient Hours Played (EHP) is calculated by subtracting the Time to 200m All Skills of a virtual player with 0 in all skills (currently 3,719.48 hours) by the Time To 200m All of the player whose time is being calculated. Time to Maxed Total and Time to 200m All Skills is calculated mostly by the fastest known reasonable XP rates possible for skills. For most skills, there are several different XP rates used to make the hours calculated much more accurate for any level. Of course, there is much more to RuneScape than can be expressed as XP rates. For this reason, there is special code for accounting for the different dynamics of the game. The array of skill XP gets modified before the XP rates are applied based on "start ratios", which is known as "Bonus XP (Start)". "Bonus XP" is used here to refer to XP gained as a biproduct of another skill. This "Bonus XP (Start)" allows players to skip early levels for certain skills, bypassing the slower XP rates at the start. "Bonus XP (End)" is bonus XP that does not allow users to skip early levels because it is counted at the end. To determine all of the ratios used, visit this page and view the page source (hint: CTRL+f "new TimeCalculator"). From here on, the ratios and XP rates may be out of date:
- For an example of a "Start Ratio", from barbarian fishing, 1 Agility XP is added to the player's Agility XP for each 11 Fishing XP remaining until 200m all. A player with 2,000,000 Fishing XP and 0 Agility XP will obtain 18,000,000 (calculated by (200,000,000 - 2,000,000) / 11) Agility XP for free when calculating time until 200m in all skills. This way, the player skips all of the early Agility levels to avoid lower XP rates. The time for the remainder 200m Agility is then calculated is 2935 hours (calculated by (200,000,000 - 18,000,000) / 62,000), assuming the Agility XP rate at 18M+ XP is 62,000 XP/hour.
- The firemaking XP from woodcutting is an example of an "End Ratio" because you cannot use woodcutting to skip early firemaking levels.
Q: Why is the EHP gain listed for a certain skill on my Track page less than I think it should be?
A: This is a common question people have with slayer. The confusion is due to the fact that not all of your EHP you get during from training slayer shows in the slayer row because you are training other skills at the same time. You will notice that you gained EHP in these other skills. Try adding up your EHP from all of the skills that you get XP from during slayer (melees, ranged, and magic), and check to see if that is close to what you think you should get. The EHP for a certain skill (using slayer as an example) is calculated by determining how much less total EHP you would have if your slayer XP was reverted back to what it was at the start of the time period (or, if you're looking at your total slayer EHP on the stats page, it would calculate your EHP loss if your slayer XP was set to 0).
Q: Why am I getting less EHP than I think I should get?
A: First, you must ask yourself if what you are doing is actually efficient. It is also important to keep in mind that efficiency is based on a goal of 200m in all skills. For maximum efficiency, certain skills may need to be trained in a certain order. For example, on OSRS, it is most efficient to get 200m fishing before training Agility or combat due to the extra XP from barbarian fishing that allows you to skip early Agility and Strength levels. Many players may attempt to train Agility at lower levels only to find out that they are not getting 1 EHP per hour, but this is by design. Another common source of confusion is that players will not obtain 1 EHP for meeting the XP rate for certain skills unless they also meet the expected ratios. For example, the algorithm expects you to gain a certain ratio of melee:slayer, ranged:slayer, etc while training Slayer. If you are not getting these ratios exactly, you will get more or less EHP than the listed Slayer XP rate would suggest. Some more information on this subject can be found here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/CrystalMathLabs/comments/3zengl/ranged_ehp/
https://www.reddit.com/r/CrystalMathLabs/comments/3mkn8r/can_someone_please_explain/
https://www.reddit.com/r/CrystalMathLabs/comments/3ghem5/can_we_get_some_clarification_on_the_special_ehp/
Q: Why do I not show up on the Records page with certain filters on, but I show up on other pages with the same filter on?
A: Players with negative XP gains in their CML histories (ex: data from an account with higher stats, or from hiscore bugs) are excluded from records with certain filters applied. This prevents non-qualifying account's records from showing up with the filter on if they swapped their display name to an account that does qualify for the filter. Filters only filter based on the player's most recent stats, so it is safer to exclude names that potentially have datapoints/records from another account. If this is happening to you, contact us and we will fix it for your account (if applicable, send us the new name of the account whose data is under your name, so we can transfer the old data to the proper account).
Q: I just set a record and it's not showing up on the records page??
A: The Records page gets cached, so it may take up to 2 hours for your record to appear on the Records page. Your new record should appear on your Track page in the records section in the sidebar instantly after setting it.
Q: My track page's XP gains are not correct/working.
A: When this sort of a question is asked, it is always because the user does not understand how the tracker works. If your track page shows 0 XP gain for all skills within the time period, it is probably because you are not updating your stats enough. Just logout and click the "CLICK TO UPDATE" button, and it should show all of your XP gains since the first datapoint within the selected time period. For more information, read the other FAQs about updating and datapoints. If you are viewing the "All Time" time period and you are wondering why the XP shown is less than your actual XP, it is because it is not supposed to show your actual XP. The "All Time" time period on the track page only shows the XP changes since the account was first tracked on CML. If you want to view your current stats on CML, click on the "Stats" link in the sidebar on your track page.
Q: Will you hide my previous name?
A: No, but you can do it yourself. The track page only shows your most recent name, and it only shows an old name if you changed your name in the last year. If it is really important to you, change your name again to remove your previous name.
Q: Will you remove my account from your site?
A: Not a chance. If you do not want to show up on a RuneScape experience tracking site, do not play RuneScape. Hiding certain data would go against the core philosophy of Crystal Math Labs. We believe users should have the ability to track any RuneScape account. I get this question occasionally from people who say that someone is "stalking" them by tracking their experience gains. They will also tell me that these "stalkers" find them in game after seeing which skill they are training and harass them repeatedly. Firstly, I just don't believe they are telling the truth. With the number of different worlds, number of different training spots for certain skills, the ability to ignore the harasser ingame, turning private chat to friends/off, and playing at different times of the day, it is hard to believe that these claims of "repeated harassment" are true. Even if they are telling the truth, a "stalker" that is dedicated enough to harass somebody repeatedly could just use another experience tracker or manually track stat changes from the hiscores. I also get this question from people who are concerned that people are updating their stats on CML. What they do not realize is that it is just the automated system updating their stats (see the question about the automatic updating system).
Q: What do I do if my question isn't listed on this page?
A: Go here.