I'm Hunting Wabbits

I finally reached the 1800 total level milemarker. At 1798 I had 12k xp to a Crafting level and 9k to a Slayer level. The Crafting level went easily due to some saved up battle staves and gems. The Slayer level, that’s a different story. I’ve been assigned Steel Dragons which take a little while. Throw in a dead Jade Vine, a few clue scrolls and it seemed to be taking forever. I got it down to 1.2k xp when I absolutely had to go meet my friends for a drink. I have no idea how, but somehow I had a penguin point. I don’t remember seeing one this week and I certainly hadn’t gone pingu hunting yet, but I’ll take it. Ran over to Larry, he gives me 1.7k and then the fireworks and that little “ffssheeeeeeew” sound goes off. 70 Slayer and 1800 total. Big Fireworks. I got a Dragon Plateskirt out of the drops too, along with a good amount of charms. It might be slow xp, but I really don’t mind dragon assignments. You spend all your lower levels fearing even attempting to kill them, that I still revel in the fact that there are ways to kill hundreds and not take a lick of damage.

It took me roughly 3 months to go from 1600-1700, and a few days short of 3 months from 1700-1800. Winter is definitely here and I hate the cold. I’ll probably be playing more often. If it takes me 3 months to go from 1800-1900 I will be more than happy. I’m setting a very generous goal of the start of baseball season. That gives me 5 months. Easy levels are hard to come by and I think that’s reasonable. Its kind of appropriate too, the very first game of the season this year is the 2008 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies (“World f’n champs!” as Chase Utley so eloquently put it) on Sunday Night Baseball. A good friend of mine just got 2001 total levels. She’s celebrating the invention of Wikipedia, my college graduation and making comments like “Its full of stars!” while beating obelisks with bones while I am still looking towards the Emancipation Proclamantion, the Civil War and Lincoln’s assasination. That 2000 level barrier has to be so sweet to break.

I hated that my Tears of Guthix were going to a skill that was so easy to train – Hunting. Last week I made myself hunt 1 level a night. It only took an hour usually to gain a level getting from 62-66. I hate forcing myself to do things in the game. It’s a game, not work, and should be fun. Hunting drives me crazy though, its much more intense and faster paced than I usually like. Setting up 4 traps, checking them, replacing them, dropping what you’ve caught… This is probably the lamest thing I’ve ever said but its too clicky for my tastes. I prefer things that you can at least chat during. The reason why I did it was that even though I’m not a huge fan of it, I find the skill very interesting. Its very versatile. I love what it opens up at the higher levels. This is how I justify it – a little work now = a lot of fun later. I love catching imps and I hate it when I spot a Ninja or Dragon impling then I have to call to my friends to come catch it and get their reward. I’m more than happy to do it, I’m not going to let a Dragon Impling just fly away when I see one because I can’t catch it. If someone’s going to get it, at least let it be a friend of mine. Sometimes though I just want to be the one to catch it. I hate to admit it, but I’ve also never used a Chin. It’ll be nice to catch a few and see what they’re all about. One of my favorite reasons though is that I can now use the Spottier Cape. It’s odd, but I have this unusual fascination with being light on my feet. I think that I just hate walking, so I’ll do anything to extend my running ability.

Jaxana was generous enough to extend an invitation to fight Armadyl boss Kree’aara with her friends. I figured it was safe enough with about 10 people. I’m always eager for something I’ve never tried before. The last kill, there were only 3 of us and we got a God Sword shard, which somehow was only 50k each. While chatting, Kree’aara promptly respawned on my head, hit me for 69 & 10 and boom – death. No one was left in the room to bless, but I really didn’t mind at all. I knew that last kill was my last one and got easily distracted when I should have been paying attention. I didn’t really lose anything major either. Bolts, Sara Coif, I have mutliple Armadyl pendants for that very reason. . Lost some Dragon Bolts (e) which I owned for about 30 seconds. Everything is easily replaceable thanks to the GE and it was kind of worth it just for the self-satisfaction of knowing you can kill something big, plus I got my first God Sword part drop. Good enough for me.

I’m looking forward to the long holiday weekend. I’m hoping I can get a few things done like work on Herblore or a number of quests. Still chipping away at the QPs.

I hate to say it, but both of you really need to go. It’s been a fun ride, really. It’s not you, its me.

Disaster Proof

Again, I apologize for the infrequency of the posts. It’s been a rough couple of weeks. You go from the extreme highs of the Phillies finally winning the World Series, to having two people close to me pass away. One being my grandmother. Four straight days of doing nothing but going to viewings, funerals and burials exhausts you to no end. I don’t intend on making this a depressing post, so on with the news.

I’ve ran into a wall with leveling. This happens usually at around this point every hundred levels or so. I get to 1570, 1675 and now 1783 and I haven’t leveled in days. There’s about 12-13 skills where I am under needing 100,000xp in, and I just can’t pull the trigger. I’ve been more interested in my daily chores, farming runs, hunting pingu, mining stars, etc. I’ve been getting xp all around, just haven’t seen fireworks in a bit. That usually happens throughout the week, then a few hours on the weekend is when I usually level. I have nothing planned this weekend, and I’m keeping it that way. For the first time in about a month, I’m going to get cozy with the laptop, a few movies and just chill.

I have been knocking out quests here and there though. I believe I have 20 left. They all seem to be the ones that when you ask people to join, they respond “oh man, I did that one already, its terrible. Good luck!” These being Path of Glouphire, Mournings End Pt2, etc. I just keep thinking, “If I can get through Ratcatchers, I can get through this.” I finished Darkness of Hallowvale and Legacy of Seergaze. I firmly believe that Meiyerditch really needs a new mayor and a community makeover.

This brings up one of my favorite things about Runescape. I have messed up countless times on quests, minigames and just gameplay overall. Runescape is VERY forgiving. I have played games in the past, that when you lose a certain item, its just gone forever. Here we can always get that item back. I’m not talking about dying and having to buy a replacement Glory, I’m focusing mainly on quest items. I’ve played games where when doing tasks, if you mess up or choose the wrong decision, you have to live with it and sometimes that certain task can never be completed. Here, all you have to do is talk to a certain character again. Maybe it seems that RS is geared to a younger crowd, or maybe it just wants to make itself more friendly towards casual gamers, either way it’s a fantastic feature. If I had trudged all the ways through the rooftops of Meiyerditch and then found out I couldn’t complete the quest because I chose the wrong dialogue in Hallowvale, I’d be pretty upset and turned off of the game.

Sure we die and lose items. Most of which can be bought back (they might be super expensive, but its possible), but it seems nothing untradeable, which you would need for a quest, can’t be replaced by merely talking to a NPC. This is also helpful because the war on bankspace is always an uphill battle. Keep the things you might need for clues, teleports, etc, but I went through a mass cleaning and wiped out all the old quest items that I don’t use. Although I did keep the ones I like. No way am I dropping my Blurite Sword, I don’t think you can get that thing back unless they come up with another use for it.

The game allows progress, and for you to progress at your own pace. You’re not locked into classes, servers, etc. You’re not penalized for typing errors, like the text based PC games of the 80s. “Turn door handle,” “Open door,” “Push Door” all met with “You can not perform that action at this time” and frustration before you figured out it was “Press door.” It is a simple game. Yes all you do is click a mouse. But the same goes for every computer game. You’re not actually having a swordfight with someone, you’re using keys and buttons to do so. Simple isn’t always bad. I always hear people complaining about the game needing to be more complex. I’d just rather have an in-depth story line, with the option of performing whatever you want to do at any given time. RS allows that. I like the back story and the details of the quests, but some times I just want to chat and mine some ores.

That’s pretty much all I have for now. I hope you’re gearing up for the grandmaster quest! I’ll be back soon with some updates. Thanks! Happy Veteran's Day!