Christmas came a little late!

What a crazy night. Some pretty cool things have happened as of the last post. First, I sold my Fury. 9M was just too tempting and I have a feeling the price will go back down soon. I could be wrong, but 9M for an ammy seems a bit excessive. It took me a long time to come to that conclusion, but I just went with it. That cash can be better used leveling other skills.

After a decent trip to Kurasks, I got a leaf bladed sword drop and 85 Slayer! I was pretty excited about the level as I can now kill Abby Demons. I took a quick trip there just to see what they’re like before continuing on with Slayer. I killed my 185 Gargoyles and got my first Ferocious Ring along with a Granite Maul (311k! wow they went up!). After that, I was assigned around 150 Waterfiends. I was about 8k to a Strength level so I decided to go back to Abby Demons before prepping for Waterfiends.

There I leveled up to 95 Strength and got my first ever Whip drop! I was pretty excited. The whip was the first big purchase I ever made in the game. I bought it when all I did was sit on the dock fishing away the days. I had sold enough sharks to the pkers at Edge to save my first million gp. After a little more saving, I bought it from one of my first friends in the game. It cost 1.6M then and I’ve had it since. I was only even 65 Attack then and couldn’t even use it! I worked so hard for it though it was kind of cool getting it as a drop. Also, before I sold it for 3.6M (gone up a bit over the years), I put it in the bank just so I could see that inventory have that little yellow “2” next to it.

The drop aside, I think Abby Demons are kind of fun. They’re really not very dangerous as their required slayer level would have you think. Waterfiends are much harder in my opinion. With a Bunyip you can just stay there, max damage is 8 I believe. They just teleport you a little bit away, but it just makes it look like you’re dancing with them.

After that I helped a friend on a clue and got a little bored. Everyone was busy and I didn’t feel like spending hours on a long trip so I figured I’d go solo godwars. Kril (Zammy) is the one I like but for some reason I didn’t feel like messing with magic defense and anti-poison. I loaded my tortuga up with rocktails and decided to go to Bandos. I had been riding high off the level and the whip drop and gmaul drop. I remember what Merch had written that someone told her about luck and not logging out while on a lucky streak. I started killing goblins and got my kc to 40 and went up to the boss door and… forgot I was in a lootshare world. There were about 4 people in there who looked like they weren’t going anywhere anytime soon. At this point I decided to tweak the luck/logout thing and decide that it doesn’t apply to world hopping. So I went to a few worlds, being sure to type “doesn’t count” in each one before leaving. I was still at my computer, it still counts!

I walk in and hit 3 big hits on him and get him down to half health. Then Graardor started to get offended and hit me harder. He got me pretty low on hp a few times before finishing him off. I actually had on a ring of life this time, and I hate those things. I swear by my ring of wealth, but this time I didn’t bring it. I finished him off and then went to pick up my drop, Bandos Tassets! I didn’t even bother killing the generals, just pick up my loot and tele’d out. I had been wanting tassets for the longest time now! I’ve been going back and forth in my head debating if the str bonus is worth the insane price tag. 24m? Insane! Now I have them for free! No wonder its always a pain finding an open Bandos world.

After that a friend wanted to solo Graardor. I made sure he was prepared and followed him to the spot. Watched him get his kc and made him wait for me to get mine. If he died I was going to run in and bless. I watched at the door, he got his kill and left. I went in and got mine and left. No good drops, but I wasn’t going to complain after the kind of day I had.

I like going to bosses because I think its fun to fight something big. Ridiculous drops aren’t really ever motivation, but wow, they are cool. I didn’t even have to use my A-K, I have to say it was a good day.

Bring it on home...

Things have been crazy busy. No luck in taking next week off. That’s 4 vacation days this year down the tube being that they don’t carry over. It bites, but I just had my year end review and there’s just too much to be done. Good review though, for the most part. Remind me to take more days off next year.

Merch Gwyar’s Canting Away had their winter solstice festival last week. I had managed to stop in for a little while. I checked the schedule and they were doing a trip to godwars. It was originally planned for sara, but when the host couldn’t make it, they let me lead a trip to Zammy. For the past several months I had been going to Zammy about 3-4 times a week with groups, usually staying for a few hours at a time. Its probably the god I’m most comfortable with. The one thing with all godwars bosses is communicating where you’re at with what you have. The last thing you want is say 2 people low on supplies, they tele out and all of a sudden you’re accidentally tanking (aka accitanking). A few had been before, a few hadn’t. I had a really great teacher the first time I went, so I tried to do what I remembered they did. Just take it slow, let people know what to expect, and make sure everyone lives. If not, bless and get back there. We got some good kills, everyone did great. No real luck with drops, but killing something big is always fun. I pretty much ran out of supplies tanking so I asked everyone to tele out. I’m sure some could have stayed longer, but I don’t like taking risks with other people. If its me, that’s fine I can cope, but I can’t handle taking someone somewhere and they lose their stuff! That’s the worst. Vaskor and Dr Leviathan missed the exit call, but thankfully they were fine and killed it. After not hearing from them and a few mins of sheer panic, and restocking and running back up the mountain from troll, got the word they were ok. Whew!

Sadly I had to miss their lighting a continuous fire from Varrock to Falador, but I definitely want to thank Canting Away for letting me partake in their holiday.

I finished the Blood Runs Deep quest and used all my xp lamps on Prayer. After that I finished the 4 soul wars games I needed to get my 100 points, used them on Prayer as well. Went from 77-81. I’m pretty happy about that. Waiting in the Soul Wars lobby gets incredibly boring, especially if you miss 2 games in a row (40 minutes of standing? Ugh!). The thing is, it keeps teasing you thinking you’ll get in at any minute. If it would just come up and say “you don’t stand a chance” I’ll easily go out and alch or do whatever for 20 mins, opposed to just standing. Using the candy cane emote to make it look like I’m flipping my sword around in my hand kept me amused. I’m bummed that they’re ‘fixing’ that.

I liked the Christmas event. A little hard with the tons of people, but fun. I also liked Blood Runs Deep. I usually do my quests with guides, but this one I just read what others had written about it and made sure I had tons of food and I just did it on the fly. That was pretty fun as well.

I also managed to pull off 89 magic, just by alching/teleporting/enchanting my way through everyday activities and 83 mining by spending some time stocking up some gold down at the living rock caverns.

Did pengs last night, put the points towards Slayer. I’m about 20k from lvl 85 and abby demons. I thought once I got to 83 I would have at least spent some time killing mages for dboots, but I think I’ve killed 4 just out of getting kill count for Zammy. As much as I’d love to kill abbys looking for a whip drop, I wonder if I’ll actually spend the time doing it.

After that watched one of my friends get her mining cape. It’s amazing to think about how that skill has changed in the past year and a half. It went from really only mining ores to ores, stars and now living rock caverns. I remember trudging through al kharid back and forth wondering how anyone could do that for so long.

I was rushing to fix my house up because I was hosting a Festivus event. I told the back story that the same, legendary, Frank Costanza told. We had the airing of the grievances where we made our complaints about the game (all in good fun of course). There were some pretty funny ones and some ones that were spot on. We ate some cake and then festivus doesn’t end until the feats of strength. So I ran into the combat ring with my “aluminum pole” (see also: rune cane) and people whooped me pretty good with their godswords and whips. Then I just let people play in my house, make tabs, pray, cook, use the cb ring, etc. I got a lot of unexpected compliments about my house! That made my night! A while back I was completely sick with my layout and basically tore the whole thing down, spent a couple weeks trying out new designs, running them by people, tweaking them, etc. Made it worth it. Most importantly, *I* love it! It actually feels like a home to me.

I think I’ve been single handedly driving Jax’s hit count through the roof. Her RSS feed of all the runescape and runescape blog updates is pretty amazing. You should definitely check it out.

So with the no days off next week, I’m not setting any new goals for the year end. I’m not going to have much time getting them done. I’m extremely happy with what I’ve done in 2009.

If I don’t get a chance to write again, have a happy (and safe) new year! I’ll see you in 2010!

Hazy Shade of Winter

I haven’t written much lately. To be honest, I haven’t had that much to say. I’ve just been going about my business. Errands, woodcut, mine gold in living caverns place, godwars, penguins, etc. Nothing too exciting, just letting you know I’m alive.

There’s a slight chance that I might be able to take the week between xmas and new year’s off. This all depends on how much work I get done next week. If that miraculously comes together, my plan is to bang out all the quests that I have left. There’s only like 4 or so I haven’t completed, mainly the most recent ones. The new one looks fun and has pretty decent rewards. I’m glad I do the diaries as soon as they’re released.

Real life has been incredibly hectic. Some in a good way, some in a bad way. I’m looking forward to it calming down a bit. I’ve got some big goals for the new year. I’ll bring them up in a year end post.

I want a goal to be ‘write more.’ I feel like that would just lead to some incredibly boring entries though. I think I need to adjust that to ‘have more to write about.’ Kind of hard, but we’ll see how it goes.

For those wanting to fill their costume room, Jax is hosting some events to get those pieces of clothing which can be hard to acquire. I actually think I have more of a chance of making the 2AM time than I did the previously scheduled time, but my chances of making it are pretty low, sadly. Again with the real life stuff. However, you should go! Here’s the info:

Trouble Brewing at 7am Saturday 19th of December (GMT Time) which is 11pm PST (my time) and 2am for those of you in EST. World 104.

Wow!

What a turnout! To be completely honest, I was expecting a few people to show up last night, with the acceptance of it just being me and one other person in the bar having a beer, I was ok with that as well. I never expected so many people to show up!

With so many people showing up, it was a little difficult to carry on a conversation. Some good discussions were had and all in all it was a lot of fun! I can’t express enough thanks to everyone who made it despite it being late, being sick (get better Kitt!), real life commitments, etc. It’s much appreciated.



It’s amazing how many people have started writing about the game in the last couple months. Merch brought up the fact that Icey Dan1’s video was a pretty big inspiration to a lot of people. It’s interesting, three or so years ago when I was looking for websites about Runescape, they were pretty few and far between. You’d mostly come up with guides and gold farming websites when you searched. Yeah there were definitely a few out there, some are still around, some made a post or two and never got back to it again, some update once or twice a year and some go from Runescape to blogging about a new game that they have all moved on to. Now it seems like there are plenty of places to find people actively writing about their game experiences. Whether it be just a journal of their levels and goals, talking about interactions, talking about how the game relates to different socio-political-economic issues which surround all of us in real life, pking, runescape classic, anything and everything related to the game – its out there.



I'll probably host another one sometime relatively soon. It was great meeting everyone and hanging out with everyone whom I've been lucky enough to know before this.

I loved the Canting Away parade march in :)



Rollcall:
Jaxana
FullofPie
Vaskor and don't forget his Runewise
Merch Gwyar
Teacuptime
Air Stallion
Zachman3334
Ezenaku
Kitt Foxx
Gerasimos aka Somisareg
Tanlker
Eman1051
GymBagBoy
Nezantra
Hubertos1
Lnbo
Chrisoffour
Mroja

If I left you off, I'm soo sorry, just drop me a line and I'll add you. I was furiously trying to write down names, take screenies and of course, have fun :) Also, let me know if there's a problem with the links.

Note what Momma Licka, who I think just stopped by accidentally wrote :) lol. Unless of course, they actually have a blog called "I lick moms..."

Thanks for a great time everyone!

"But I've been calling her Crab-apple..."

I’m loving how quick the essence adds up from the Ardy diary. I made about 1k Nature runes and 1k Cosmics the other night to help me with my making orbs and alching staves. I got to 88 Crafting in the process. Nothing new, but a level is a level 

Did an herb run, knocked out the scarabite task with some really helpful advice from Jax. I always hated those things, it was good to take them out in one trip.

I went to Soul Wars last night and it was incredibly disappointing. Didn’t get in – Loss – Didn’t get in. Over an hour play, maybe 2k Strength xp and 1 zeal to show for it. This was even using advice from a friend in a 125+ clan chat for it. The loss was when no one in the chat got in on the first wave and decided to switch teams. I have to think about the usefulness of these things. If I had just stayed on one team consistently and not worried about stupid things like “fake rushes” and all, I would have at least gotten 5 zeal for 1 win and 2 losses. I’d even take 3 straight losses. Nothing drives me crazier in the game than just standing there and doing absolutely nothing.

Did an errand run after I got frustrated standing in the lobby. I realize the NPC’s in the game probably pronounce their names a lot differently than I do in my head. I’ve been calling Arhein “Arnheim” forever. I’ve been calling Cromperty “Comp-tree.” I think its because I don’t read their names in quests too closely, then whatever makes sense in my head just sticks. It reminds me of when I read the first Harry Potter book (actually the only one I got through) and saw Hermione’s name. Then I saw the movie and was like “Oh… so *that’s* how you say that…” And yes, I do know how to properly pronounce Thierry Henry. Either way, I’m sticking to what I make up in my head. I think it sounds better. I remember playing Final Fantasy and being able to change the names of characters. I really liked that. The only issue was when you had to look at a guide, I had no idea who they were talking about. “Who’s Wakka? Oh, you mean Victorino? Got it.”

I’m revisiting my goals from last year. At the time I needed 14 quests for the quest cape. I wanted everything 75+ and to get over 2k levels (I needed 170 at the time to get everything 75+). I also wanted 2 skillcapes.

I got the quest cape, but I’ve been slacking and I haven’t done Curse of Arrav or Within the Light yet. I got everything 75+ and have over 2k levels. I got my Cooking cape a while ago. I’ve also noticed I haven’t done any Firemaking since I did 77-92 last December. The 3 levels have been mostly from the Adze or evil trees. It’s been sitting at 95 for a while now. I’m more concerned with other skill and unlocking things than just getting it for the sake of it at the moment. Either way, I feel like its been a good year and I’ve done what I wanted to achieve. Looking back I think the skill cape goal was a little lame. If I get one, awesome, if I get a ton of levels across everything – even better. It’s really interesting looking back on old blog posts and seeing what mindset I was in and when.

I’m already thinking about goals for 2010. I think 90+ is a decent one to work towards. It seems ridiculous at the moment, but its only 162 levels. One for every regular season baseball game. I know some of those are hard levels, but it is 12 months. I had some doubt going into 2009 if what I could do would get done, and I pretty much did it, level-wise with still a month and a half to spare. We’ll see where the holidays take us, I guess.

Again, meetup, this Sunday (depending on where you live!) 11/22. Come out! Bring your friends and lets have a good time!

2 Updates in one day?!

I must be losing my mind!!

I needed to share this article though, it's pretty interesting. It's good to see Graardor get some face time ;)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7090490.stm

Interesting notes - 9 million accounts, 6 million of which are active. Also noted that there's 5 times more F2P than P2P. This means member base is 1.2M members. (In case you want to figure out percentage-wise where you are overall in high scores, figure high score rank divided by 1,200,000 = what % you are)

The average Jagex employee is 22. Wow. I mean... Wow! That may seem old to some of you who are younger, but in the grand scheme of things, that's actually really young.

Enjoy! :)

EDIT: I'm an idiot, when the article first came up it said 2009, I swear!

Insert clever title here

World 61, 8PM EST, South Varrock Bar for meetup and party! Check out my previous post for time zone conversions. (Merch – so sorry about the mixup! I felt so bad!)

A bunch of updates came out yesterday. I’m glad extreme pots can be used in minigames, even though I can’t make any of them yet. The RC update is nice. A few extra runes here and there is alright. I can understand why everyone 91+ would be upset. It’s not an easy skill to level, which comes with good rewards, but I hate to say it, it’s not going to stay like that forever. Eventually every skill gets updated with something new which angers everyone who already got a high level in it. Its just, Runescape life… Think of Mining before stars and Woodcutting before Evil Trees or even having to even click for each log.

I don’t really use Magic in combat, so that doesn’t really effect me either, but I’m happy that option is there. Basically, out of all the updates this week, the one I’m really excited about, which is really just a side note, is the fact that I can now make big bones into peaches. I’ve been dying for that forever. No more having to kill wild dogs for bones on Fire Giant tasks or hoping for fish drops from Aquanites.

I’ve been feeling fighty lately. I should get back to Slayer, but Scarabite task just leaves me so… ugh… I’ve been making a solo Bandos trip daily. I can usually get about 2 kills. A lot of times I go in and Graardor is already below half health. I get that, he hits hard, people need to tele out. I just can’t help but wonder when I finish him off, if that was the good drop or not. After that, I usually go to Soul Wars. After a herb run of course I’m saving up for 100 points and I have to say, I have no idea why. Its just a goal that I created that doesn’t really have a point. Should I use the xp on Slayer? Magic? Prayer? It would easily get me 94 Strength (I’m about 600k from that now)… I just really started liking the game. I like killing Jellies/Pyerfiends, taking control of the obelisk, killing the ava, etc. The waiting room does need an update however, there’s times where you get in with everyone else, but just don’t get in a game. You just sit there for 20 minutes and get told you have a higher priority. I swear, sometimes I wonder how my priority could possibly get any higher.

It’s also interesting how kills of Bork and Kril show up in the Adventurer Log, but Graardor kills don’t. I wonder what Rodney Dangerfield would have to say about that…

My favorite thing from the patch notes – “A tree broke its trunk. We've splinted the gap and it should be healed in no time.” For some reason that makes me laugh.

One thing that kills me about updates is that they come out on Tuesdays. It’s the one day of the week where I actually have obligations (albeit being at a bar shooting darts), so I sneak on the site at work during the morning, see what they are, read forums and blogs about them and the anticipation of using them is like being a kid and waiting for Christmas. No matter how big/small they are. The day the GE was released was the worst. I had been waiting for that forever! A little waiting just makes it that much more exciting :)

I’ve been seeing more RS blogs than ever. Some are new, some are ones I finally heard about that I haven’t seen before. I love this. Everyone’s experience with the game is unique, I love hearing about it from all angles.

Suntory Time

Sunday, November 22, 8PM EST. World 61 (F2P), Blue Moon Inn (Bar in southern Varrock) Stop by! Let's get together and actually meet each other. I know this isn't going to be a good time for everyone, but we can do this again at another time if this goes over well and people are interested.

For timezones:
Event starts:
US/Eastern: 8:00 PM (Sunday, 22 Nov 2009)
US/Pacific: 5:00 PM (Sunday, 22 Nov 2009)
US/Central: 7:00 PM (Sunday, 22 Nov 2009)
UK: 1:00 AM (Monday, 23 Nov 2009)
Europe: 2:00 AM (Monday, 23 Nov 2009)
Australia (Brisbane): 11:00 AM (Monday, 23 Nov 2009)
New Zealand: 2:00 PM (Monday, 23 Nov 2009)
(Totally stole that from the Events section of TCA)

Come out, have a beer at the pub and we can say hi, talk about whatever - state of the game, economy, recent updates, future updates, what we like, what we hate, how much better our sports team is than the others, anything. Like I said, I just think it'd be fun to meet with everyone who shares similar interests. Bring friends, bring friends of friends, its open to anyone and everyone.

That said, I got up to 82 Slayer this weekend. One more level to those Spiritual Mages and Dragon Boot drops.

Actually had a pretty decent experience at Armadyl last night. Since Armadyl Hilts are ridiculously expensive now, every world is pretty packed. We finally found one that was open, with a team about 10-15 kc behind us. They were actually really nice. We said we just wanted a few kills and they agreed to let us go in first. We ended up staying for about 8 kills before they came in, which was right as we were about to leave. Why can't it always be like that? A little communication goes so far. Also, if I know you're going to just kill a few, I'd gladly wait a bit instead of constantly world hopping or competing for kills. That said, no major drops, but no deaths between the 4-5 of us, c'est la vie...

The Champion update came out yesterday. I went to the Champions Guild, went to the basement, talked to... the person who's name I can't remember, fought a leprechaun, talked to him again and now I have my own personal cheerleader following me around carrying its zombie banner. Its pretty cute with its little wings and what it says and all. Plus, zombies are pretty awesome in their own right, so it amuses me.

I'm getting closer to 93 Strength. Hopefully I'll have that before the next posting.

Meetups, Chores & Godwars

Just to clarify some comments I made in the last post, what I'd like to do is just have an in-game meetup at some point. I'll host it in my house and anyone is welcome to come. Bloggers, readers, commenters, friends, etc. I just think it would be neat to see and talk to some of the people I sometimes only read about. We've got a pretty amazing community, people from all over, with all different gamestyles and goals, writing styles, writing subjects... It would be great to just have a gathering and socialize since we share a common interest.

I know that not everyone can make it because of timezones, life, etc, so maybe there'll be more than one. Now that the World Series is (sadly) over, I can concentrate on something other than baseball. I'll have the details together next week.

That said, I'm loving how pretty much all the daily errands are noted. I'm actually more inclined to do them now. I can usually get them done in about 10-15 mins. 20 tops if I'm fighting the jade vine instead of checking it. What I do is suit up in my best melee gear and weapon. My inv consists of:
Cammy tele runes (1 Law, 5 Air)
Ardy tele runes (2 Law, 2 Water)
Yanille tele runes (2 Law, 2 Earth)
Varrock tele runes (1 Law, 3 Air, 1 Fire)
Seer's Headband
Varrock 3 Platebody
Ardy Cape
Cash
Anti poison
Food

I usually start south and work my way up.
1) Tele to Yanille - Get sand from Bert
2) Tele to Ardy - Check/fight Jade Vine, get your 150 ess from the Wizard (wear cape)
3) Tele to Cammy - Get flax (headband), run to Catherby, get pineapples & seaweed from Arnheim
4) Tele to Varrock- Get staves (Varrock 3)
5) Tele to Edge (yes I'm lazy) - go kill Bork

You can bank at edge if you don't want to take all of that to Bork with you. I also stopped bothering with the Phoenix a while ago and the fact that I can do these so quickly, its really quite simple now.

The other night I was bored and feeling a little fighty. I decided to give soloing Kril down in Zammy GWD another shot. Each previous attempt I was really close, but just couldn't do it. I think the key is the fact that someone told me about setting the "Take bob" option to right click, making it easy to grab some extra Mantas from my turtle with just a quick click. No great drops, 3 Lantadyme seeds and 298 Addy P++ arrows (about 400k junk for those), but I'm glad to know I can do it now.

I really want to solo Kree'Aara. I've made a few attempts, all which bring me back to the fact that my range isn't close to good enough. I really need to train range, I just don't like it. Ah well.

Curious...

Just throwing something out there that was kind of inspired by Icey Dan's video...

The Runescape blogger community is something amazing. There are blogs covering all types of gameplay. Some deal with PK, some are guides, some are journals, some are an amalgamation of everything. The one thing that keeps us together, is the love of the game.

Anyone interested in a gathering/meetup between the people who play this game, blog about it, in any which way, so we can trade ideas, meet each other, etc..?

Maybe have a panel discussion with a moderator, just to see the different viewpoints we all have?

Like a cocktail party, just about the game :) Good idea? Terrible idea?

A little of this, a little of that

Chipping away at Runecrafting bit by bit. I had been doing double Cosmics for the cash, but Death Runes are actually worth a little more than 2x Cosmics. Also, they’re a little bit better xp. I’m really not minding it, its good money, but it does take forever. I feel like I’ve been working on that this month more than anything and I’m still about 75k xp away from my temporary goal of 77 Runecrafting (Blood Runes).

I’m trying to grow another Saradomin Owl. I’ve managed to mess up 3 times already due to forgetting to pay attention to it. I figured I’d do some Fletching with my growing stock of Maple Logs. Got the chick to about 60% and got 84 Fletching in the process.

Leveled Attack to 90 and got 123cb overall. Also got a Champion Challenge scroll for the first time ever. Killed the Zombie champion pretty easily. A few xp of Slayer and HP as a reward. A cool looking banner hung from the wall, but more importantly, I unlocked 2 new music tracks. Only 14 left until I have all of them.

Absolutely loving the free Pure Essence reward from the Adry Diary. Even if I just collect that, make 3 quick trips into the abyss to make Deaths, that’s a daily reward of over $67k, for about 2 mins of effort as well as about 1500xp.

I didn’t even really notice until I had passed it, but at some point I got over 100m total xp this weekend.

Everyone seems to be discussing the inflation of the economy. Yes, a lot of things cost a lot more nowadays then they did a few months ago. Prayer Pots are right now what they were when they were being merched and everyone was up in arms at it. On the other side too, doesn’t it seem to even out with the items you are selling? People seem to forget that aspect of it. Yes you might have spent 20m buying herbs when a little while ago you would have spent 10m. Didn’t you get that 20m at about the same speed as the 10m?

I’ve been saving a bit, so I’ve amassed a nice little stack of cash. Sure that giant sword looks nice, so does that shield over there, or maybe those tassets, but their prices are through the roof. With every day, players are getting better. Updates come out with newer, better products, newer ways to gain xp easier. More money is being generated by more people, so it makes sense things get inflated. For some reason though I have a feeling things are going to come down soon. I’m not sure why, just a hunch. Maybe there’ll be a mass exit if Mechscape is ever launched. Who knows. All I know is that the only thing guaranteed to be stable is the actual cash itself. In the meantime, I’ll just keep doing what I do. Even though I’ve got more money, I still can’t justify it to myself to spend such large amounts. It took me forever to decide to buy a BCP when it was only 14m, now its like 22m! I’m also wondering if I should just sell that, my Karil’s and Verac’s since they’re worth so much. Who knows, I’ll probably just sit back and do nothing. Any input?

All about Ardy!

New diary was just released this week. Achievement diaries might be my favorite things to look forward to in Runescape. When the Varrock Diary was released, I wasn't even close to having the levels required to complete it. It was amazing motivation go get my tail in gear, especially with Smithing and Farming.

The Karamja diary was my real motivator in training combat. Level 100 seemed so far away at that point, but it feels great when you finally get what you've been working so hard toward.

The Falador, Camelot and Lumbridge diaries didn't do much to motivate, I had all the levels needed when they were released. In a way, that has been the real motivation. I've been training my levels pretty evenly, trying to get them all to a decent level so that when the day comes where new diaries come out, I can plow through them then and there.

This is the first time they've released an "Elite" chapter of the diary. I love the motivation to get my Smithing (yet again) and Thieving up. I can do the Fishing and Runecrafting ones, the Thieving one is within pretty good reach but the Summoning one is like a punch in the head. 93? Mannnn... Laggy hotel internet connections have had me steering clear of all cb recently. Looks like I'll be doing some Slayer in the next few months.

One annoying thing about the diary, I realized the one monkey greegree I didn't own, was the one I needed. Having to do that again brought back all the memories I tried to suppress after Monkey Madness.

Jax has a pretty sweet guide about doing the diary based on location. I wish I saw it sooner.

I'm dying to see what a Canifis diary would look like...

Oktoberfist

It's been a hectic couple of weeks. Playing schedule has been a little sporadic because work has been insanely busy. I'll try to update more frequently, but its hard to keep concentrated out on the road.

I've been working on a little bit of everything recently. I managed to get 92 Strength and 91 HP by joining a few friends in some Soul Wars games. I'm actually starting to like the game a lot. I do a little bit of everything, kill the fiends & jellies, collect fragments, attack the ava and even fight some other players. I'm ok with some mini-game's use of pvp. There isn't much taunting, etc, plus you don't lose your items to some pure who lured you there. The points are actually pretty good xp as well.

I got another year goal completed last night. I took some hunt potions and my Arctic Bear and got myself 75 Hunting then used penguins to get 75 RC, meaning that all my skills now are at least 75.

What's left of those goals are to do 2 quests to reclaim my Quest Cape, make an attempt at the Fight Cave for the Fire Cape and try for one other skillcape. I think this is all doable in 3 months time. I need to work on my range for the Fight Caves though, that's going to be the hardest one to accomplish.

I lagged out RC and lost my Adze. I'm putting off lighting all those beacons again. Shotty hotel wireless... Its just such a process and I can't deal with that at the moment.

New Herblore potions came out yesterday. They look pretty cool. A lot of my friends were trying to see if they were Req. Ass't -able. I'm glad they aren't, it kind of defeats the purpose. Same with making them untradeable, if you want them, then you're going to have to train for them. I like things that give you motivation.

I'm dying to get to 77 RC so that I can make Blood Runes, so for you, you'll find me dodging revs, running laps into the abyss.

Shop Update

The updates this week caused a bit of a whirlwind among players. (To be honest, I don't think I've ever seen an update that hasn't set off a mass panic). This one was a little different. I'm not going to touch on the graphics or the auto-cast of spells. I want to focus a little bit on the limited stock update for stores.

I actually really like this update. Hear me out. When I started Runescape, there was limited stock at stores. This was offset by the fact that the trade limit had yet to be imposed on the players. The prices of many items were much higher than they are in the game today.

There were rewards in skilling. Rune Platebodies need 99 Smithing in order to obtain them. This is a little ridiculous, being that there have been so many other, better, platebodies introduced since, but at the time, getting the best armor meant needing to have the best skills.

Needing runes meant you worked on Runecrafting, etc. I see this as a push to everyone who has gotten so used to buying everything they need, to train skills that they might never have. I put it on the level of the Achievement Diary. I hated getting my Farming and Smithing up at the moment, however, down the line I'm glad that I have those levels and that I worked on these skills.

Am I saying that every player should make everything for themselves? No, that's not what I'm getting at. I'm just stating that there needs to be a more drive for player-made items opposed to unlimited stock store items. Say you want a Rune Platebody, but are only 65 Smithing. Yes, its impossible to ask you to train to 99 to get what you want, but the point is, there are players out there who have trained to 99 Smithing. They are able to make one for you. Sure, it might be sold out of the GE, but there's entire forum threads dedicated to these things, as well as Worlds. If you need 1k vials and don't want to make them, that's fine as well. Someone out there is willing to do it and sell them to you. We had Runescape "jobs" for a while. I'd get the cowhides, the xp from attacking them and sell them to one high level everytime I got 1k. Same goes with coal. It gave the game a more personal feel to it as well as gave one more way to get to know your fellow players. It was walking into the mom & pop shop every weekend, saying hello, having a conversation, exchanging business, everyone wins. It feels to me that Runescape has taken on a very Wal-Mart feel lately.

This might drive the prices up on countless items, but I really feel as if skills have been hit hard over the years. Take Death Runes for example. You train your Runecrafting to 65, complete one of the more difficult quests in Mourning's End Part 2, all for what? You can create Death Runes now, but its more profitable to create Law Runes or even double Cosmics. That's really not much of a reward for those feats. Blood Runes have an insanely high level requirement considering the skill is so slow at giving xp, and the price really needs to reflect the work put into it.

Smithing as well. What started out as one of the most profitable skills on Runescape has really become a money sink over the years. Its to the point where rune armor and weapons are usually just alched when you get them as a drop. The value is negligible between selling it and its alch value, which really is kind of sad if you think about it.

I really hope this update sticks. A little legwork and "getting to know your local seller" as well as some price increases, I feel are a good thing. If I seem a little combatitive in this post its because its something I really feel pretty strong about. Merch clans, 75k, 26k schemes, etc, generating gigantic amounts of cash I feel has almost made players soft in a way. No need to train Herblore, just buy pots. No need to train Runecrafting, just buy runes, etc... Maybe it'll make someone second guess why they're spending all that cash on an item, which is now no longer selling and if it ever does it'd be for quadruple the price, say "why don't I just make that on my own?" Who knows, maybe they'll actually like it.

There was a time before the GE, before unlimited stocks where we all survived. I love the convenience of the GE, don't get me wrong. However, there was a time where that Rune Platebody we all take for granted now wasn't available in stores. To get it, you needed to know someone with 99 Smithing, if you weren't yourself. That really meant something.

As with everything, there are always exceptions. The main one for this is Shards. The limit on that is ridiculous and should be removed. Any items that are not able to be made by a player, shouldn't have a limit. As for the ones that are player made, the low limit makes me excited to use certain skills which have fallen by the weyside, again. I think its a good re-vamp by Jagex to brush the dust off of things like making vials, crafting in general, even RC. I'm excited that it looks like it will be profitable to be a skiller again.

In the year 2000...

Well, I got my 2000 levels late last week. The frantic push for levels gave me a little bit of time for me to distress after the big fireworks went off. It gave me some time to get around to some things I wanted to do.



Forever my house has been bothering. It was an incredibly poor layout which made the rooms I’d like to access quickly far away from the portal. It was disjointed and didn’t really make a lot of sense. About a month or so ago I used a few Stealing Creation hammers to pound out a few levels (bad pun, I know), however I still had a lot of lower level furniture I hadn’t upgraded. To get the levels it was build, destroy, rebuild of oak tables.

I really think Construction had been poorly designed in the beginning. You start with the lower level rooms and don’t really have options but to make a few of them. Thus, expanding your higher level rooms further out. When you’re a lower level, the price you paid for those rooms adds up. Its tough to have to tear them down. Also, I wish there were a way to remove a piece of furniture you had acquired in the past. I had a lot of gilded things thanks to treasure trails. It got to a point where buying gold leaves really put some damage in my funds.

It took me about a week to pull it together. I’d say about 5 days of playing with designs until I got something I liked, and was personalized a bit, and about 2 days of execution of actually building it. I wanted the altar, lecterns (one of each for tabs), portals, costume room, quest hall (glory tele) and workshop as close as possible. Expanding outward to the rooms I don’t use as often, the kitchen, dining room, skill hall. Finally in the outer regions the parlor (gotta keep books somewhere), throne room, with the games room and two combat rooms (combat ring and ranging pedestals) near each other for fun at gatherings. Also there’s a dungeon, hall, treasure room for good fun as well. The two bedrooms are on the second floor, with mine being slightly nicer than the butler’s. He’s got to get a good night’s rest as well, but should still know that I’m paying him.

I have some things in there lower level than I could, but for personal preference. I like the tentacle pool better than the flames. I’d rather have a poster of Morytania than Isifidar. I need to get some CWars armor and the head of something to complete it. I still have a lot to upgrade to, I am only 78 Con.

Moving the costume room was a killer, it took some seriously bankspace juggle to clear that place out. However with that back up and upgraded, the menagerie holding on to my raven, hellcat and broav, I’m actually down to 450 occupied bankspaces. I don’t think I’ve been south of 460 since they increased the size a couple years ago.

Its weird, I actually feel prouder of the house more than a lot of skills I have some higher levels in. I think its because its customized to what *you* like. It took a lot of money, it put me nearly out of range of even making a battlestave run for the day, but it was worth it and I made a lot of it back since.

Here’s the layout code for Runehq if anyone wants to see it: RIKRMLRQLRUORYNRfQSISSMRSQJSUMSYDSfNTIETOGTSFTUHTaPTdQ

Just replace “Formal Garden” with Menagerie, because that isn’t an option as of yet.

Why we do what we do

One of the Runescape sites I check out daily is Runescape Reader's Digest. It's updated on a pretty much daily basis and just points you in the right direction if you're looking for interesting articles pertaining to the game.

Today, Vaskor pointed to this article asking Runescape bloggers some questions regarding why we write what we write. I think its a really interesting idea, so I decided to follow suit. Also I'm borrowing his format because I think its quick and to the point. Hope you don't mind! ;)

Why did I start blogging?

I was looking up random Runescape information one day when I came across this blog. I had never seen a runescape blog before that didn't pertain to guides, tips or the dreaded gold farmers. It was personal. They had the same sort of playing style that I did, albeit they're a F2P mod and I'm a P2P layman. I loved reading about the interpersonal dynamics of playing a MMORPG (Runescape is the only MMORPG I've ever played). I fell in love with the fact that behind the stats, skills, quests etc, there are actual people with different political views, religions, cultures, everything, taking part in something. It was all new for me. From there I discovered more and more similar sites, mostly touching on gameplay, but each with a personal feel on it. I guess I just wanted a part of that.

What do I get out of it?

I've met a lot of interesting, amazing people that I might not have. It's nice just to have a record of things I've done, noticed, figured out or even just how I felt about certain things. It's something to look back on. Its interesting how we can change as people and players over time and sometimes we don't even notice it until we look at something we did, say, a year or so ago.

Tips to players who also wish to blog for runescape?

Write about anything you feel like writing about. What may seem just as an outlet to you, might be insipring or helpful to someone else, regardless of how trivial you think it may be. Much like the game, have fun with it. Don't make it 'work.'

Back to work...

Back home after a week vacation at the beach. I did sneak in a little RS here and there (mainly stave runs), but for the most part it was good times, good meals, drinks and friends. Its good to take a little break every now and then.

It’s interesting just how profitable GWD can be if you go with a stable set of friends. Zammy boss seems to be the easiest. We’ve been taking many trips with 6-7 people and can usually stay an hour or two before people have to go or run out of supplies. Trips usually get a split of a Zamorak Spear or a hilt. The last trip I took came in at over 5.8M gross due to getting one of each as well as various other drops. It’s still amusing to see a Dragon Dagger split though. Kril drops 19k gp a lot to a person, but splits a 30k drop between 6 people?

It’s weird to say, but I had reached a point where I had more money than I ever had in the game. I had kept it stashed away for a bit, but that’s doing me no good. I decided to take some out and get a few levels. I looked on forums for an open guilded altar and over a few days got 74-77 Prayer. Antifire potions seem to be the cheapest/best xp to make at my level so I went 72-74 Herblore. I’m only about 50k from 75. For some reason Prayer Potions are up over 15k each now. I made a few of those and they easily sold at max price in GE. Which is ridiculous because Sara Brews require a much higher level, more difficult to obtain second and are about a third of the price.

Also got 80 Slayer, 86 Crafting, 89 Strength (actually leveled this on Kril) and 121cb since my last update. They were all things I was pretty close to and just happened to level around the same time. I’m up to 1997 total levels. The year I graduated high school. Closing in on that 2k mark. If not tonight, I hope to get it tomorrow.

Part Deux

I logged in to one of the merch chats today to see if anything was new. The clan chat name was instructing to sell. I happened to have one of the items so I thought I’d try it out. Put it on GE at minimum – no offers. Just a few hours before everyone had max bids in, the leaders telling everyone to hold onto the item until it got to be a certain amount. It didn’t even reach half that amount before they dumped the product.

This brought about a pretty huge reaction. People were now stuck with tons of these items that are now plummeting in value and wondering who to blame. You could tell people were lashing out in PM to the ranks. The ‘leader’ of the clan came on, said he was tricked by a third party who dumped and caused tank of the product. Also, the person who duped him spammed the chat advertising a different clan.

Even ranked players complained about how much money they lost, which got me thinking, aren’t they in on it? I started to realize it might be a little more complicated than I originally thought. That’s when the one who is blamed to have caused the problem comes back into chat and starts spamming again. Claiming how terrible that merch clan is and how much better this other one would be. He gave the specific example of the collapse a few hours before. The names of the higher ranks seemed familiar, if not the same as were screaming in the other clan about what item to buy.

Here’s the thing, anyone can get a rank in a clan chat. All you have to do is go to a heavily populated world, heavily populated area (like GE or PC) and advertise about joining the clan chat. Boom – there’s your rank in a few hours. This does a number of things. First off, gives that person a false sense of power. They are not included in the actual plan as to what’s going on and are going to get scammed as well. Second, it gives members reassurance that what they are taking part in is not a scam. If everyone’s complaining about losing money, even the people with ranks, then something must have surely gone wrong and it won’t happen again, right? A clan wouldn’t scam its own ranked players, who earned that rank only by advertising that clan in order to drive prices up, would it? Ugh.

When the one who was blamed for the problem came back in clan chat again and started spamming for the second time about how bad that particular clan is at merching, he advertised his own merch clan. Also in doing so, attacked specific members. All this while the leader of the chat sits idly by. If he scammed everyone, why are you still letting him fight and pick arguments in your chat? It’s a bit like watching wrestling. This does two things, either has the person switch over and try the new chat, which is already merching a new item, or install some sense of loyalty in the original clan, meaning you’ll wait a few days, take their side and then try again.

I wouldn’t be surprised if everything was staged and both clans are run by the same people. Look at it like this, you hear of a merch clan through advertising, you join and invest. Your investment fails, someone comes along and says ‘they’re not doing it right, join us.’ The first clan has to wait 2-5 days so they can stock up on a new item before its announced anyway. You want to try and recoup your cash quickly so you see what this competitor has to say. The same thing happens. Merch clan A comes up and says, ‘see they aren’t as good as us’ and this continues back and forth, sucking everyone dry of their cash. Because of the constant want of power, more and more people advertise. The ones who got ripped off never even mention a word to the new ones being ushered in.

On the surface, it appears there’s a lot of merch clans out there, but I really wouldn’t be surprised if there were just a handful of separate ones and the majority of them fall under the same umbrella of one giant clan. The different facets, different roles, Andy Kaufman/Jerry Lawler-esque scripted rivalries and arguments are all very intriguing. It’s almost as if you’re watching a soap opera if you take a step back and try to figure out what’s going on with these clans. Its also very easy to get caught up in all the fast paced drama, the potential for large sums of cash, etc. Don’t fall into it. I do have to admit, it has been highly amusing observing all of this as a fly on the wall. Just don’t get involved.

Blue Horseshoe loves Anacott Steel

Vaskor’s link to an article about one of the former leaders of GoldMerch, one of the larger merchanting clans on Runescape, was really interesting to me. I decided to do a little research into some merchanting clans to get some more info.

Just to put it out there, I don’t really merch. I’ve never been in a merch clan. Being able to dictate market prices in order to boost your own profits has always seemed suspect to me. The article openly stated that they used people in order to make cash, while others would lose it. Not only that, but if you just happen to need whatever object is being merched is, chances are you won’t be able to get it, and if you do it’ll be at a highly inflated price.

Individually figuring out trends, buying low and selling high, is completely fine. Blatant price manipulation is another. However, as annoying and distrustful as I see it, it is within the rules. For some people, this is how they want to play the game, and who am I to say what they can and can’t do? We all play differently, its what makes the game great.

I came across an interesting website which lists about 40-50 merch clans, what item they’re buying, what stage of the process they are in, and what the dump price is. I’m on the fence about posting a link to it or not. On one hand I don’t want to give any free advertising, this site has never been about helping out merch clans. On the other hand, it would serve as a good warning. Perhaps you wanted to buy a certain item, you can see that maybe this isn’t the best time to do it. I think there’s too much risk so I’ll just say if you can work Google, you can probably find it.

So I turned private off and decided to sit in a few of these clan chats. I have to say I was impressed. It’s rare you log into full, public chat and see no spamming. I shortly realized it is because usually only 2-4 people in the chats have ranks and can actually be ‘heard.’ The format is basically you PM a ranked player, and he/she’ll answer your question publicly in the clan chat for all to see. They’ll also reiterate the dump prices over and over. Usually the title of the clan chat is the item which is being merched.

Contrary to my preconceptions, for the main part, everyone seemed incredibly polite and helpful. Which, the more that I think about it, has to make sense. Everyone in these chats are the ones who are making the ranks their money. Most state that the entire clan votes on items, however checking the items which they have selected, seeing their prices change a couple days prior to the ‘vote’ points out that these are predetermined and have already been hoarded by the few ‘in the know.’ The ‘vote’ is a way of making people feeling included. Comparable to the government limiting the use of butter during WWII, to make people feel involved in the situation they have no control over. The dump prices are set up so that the few who started the merching can get out, while the item is still selling. Anyone who stays in up to the so-called ‘dump price’ is going to be at a loss.

These clans are really run like well thought out businesses. There’s research involved, a certain hierarchy established, a routine to be followed, etc. They do generate enormous amounts of profit for those who utilize them well. Its easy to see how a player can stumble in one of these chats and get carried away. You’re in a clan chat with 100 other people, all of which are seemingly going to do the same thing, the prices are in fact rising on said object, it feels like you can’t lose. Then all of a sudden everyone dumps before you and you’re at a loss. If you try to speak up about your loss, you can’t. No one can hear you, unless you PM a ranked player and why would he let your complaints be heard in front of all the new potential buyers.

I didn’t invest in any of merchandise. Its just not my thing. It was interesting to sit in and get a first hand account of how these things work though. I’ll be keeping tabs, jumping in a clan chat here and there just to make sure I’m not getting burned if I need an item. I’m sure if you do it right there’s a lot of cash to be made, but I’ve made it this far and I feel as if I’m doing quite alright.

I had a lot of time to check the chats while I sat at the GE, checking the prices while I was working on a Fletching level. Got that up to 82. It was about time I put some of those Maple Logs to use. I got my Thieving to 71 a couple days ago. I figured I’d go check out Pyramid Plunder and wow. What a difference a room makes! I went from averaging 5000xp/run to about 8500-9000xp/run with a few runs being over 10,000xp. I quickly knocked out level 72 in that and have a feeling this will be less annoying to get to 75 than I thought.

Also congrats to Jaxana, who's helped me many times with tips, advice, events, good conversation, with her getting 3 99's in a span of about 10 minutes! That was awesome.

All I care about is me, my drums and you,,,

Ok this isn't a RS post. One of my most favorite directors in the world just passed away. I grew up with Ferris Bueller, The Breakfast Club, 16 Candles, Planes Trains and Automobiles, Uncle Buck, Vacation, etc... Ducky, Cameron, Ally Sheedy in the Breakfast Club are people I watched over and over and love. So this post is for John Hughes... He has nothing to do with Runescape, but has done something for us who grew up in the 80s...

Clocks and Penguins and Skills, Oh my!

I missed three penguins last week. I usually do them on Tuesday night, just before the reset, so that I can see how many I randomly stumble across in the mean time. I've never had an issue with it resetting before I'm done, they only take a short amount of time. I needed some quick xp on Sunday so I brought up the list and got easy ones relatively quickly. I was close to a level, so I didn't want to use all 10. Since the xp you get is based on your level, its better to get a few, cash them in, get the level, then get the others and cash them in, being that they'll give you more xp. That is, if you don't want to train that skill at that moment. Last night though, just laziness to get the remaining few. I got home from a long day at work and just couldn't deal with listening to the overwhelmingly annoying penguin chat.

One of the annoying things about penguin chat hunting on Tuesdays is that it gets a little flooded with "Reset yet???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" messages. I'm not sure what the obsession is penguin hunting the minute they're out, but it seems a matter of life or death. Also, you think after all these weeks (almost a year now?) people would learn the reset time. I do realize that they're usually late, but I see the same people, week after week, flooding the chat asking if they reset, about 4 hours prior to even when they're supposed to. The RS reset clock isn't really hard to figure out. If people put some effort into it, it'd stop the freak outs.


Ok, I can't make a comment like that and not contribute something. 8pm EST Tuesday nights is when the penguin reset is. Be prepared to wait though, its usually 30-45 minutes after that. That at least narrows your window so you won't have to check at 5pm EST. Also, 8PM on the button is when staves reset so you can buy more. I've been running late at 7:59, bought them, then right at 8:00 can buy more. Bert and Arnheim however, they hate us. Them you have to wait until 24 hours after your last talking to him. This is highly annoying. Say you visit them at 9PM one night. This means you have to wait until AFTER 9PM the next day to get more. Yes, it can be 9:01, but the issue with that is that days add up. Meaning at somepoint, its going to be 11PM, 12AM, 1AM, meaning that you'll either miss a day, or really be missing sleep.
Flax guy, I'm not sure of. I feel like he's on the 8PM clock, but don't quote me on that. He's never really turned me down on my way to Arnheim, who has, but I can't remember if its because I just forgot to go the previous day or not.

I've been fishing the last couple days. Its not helping me get closer to any kind of level, but I just think I needed to restock and clear my mind. I finally got to use the Granite Lobster. I didn't really notice any kind of boost in speed, plus it doesn't really seem to produce many sharks/swordfish. Just a few here and there. I think they came out a little too late for them to help me with it though. Of course, free items are free items and xp, so if you're going to be doing something like Fishing, Woodcutting, etc, there's really no reason not to at least have some sort of familiar with you.

I really believe we should be able to have a Summoning obelisk in our POH. It would fit in perfectly in the Garden. I can understand not having a bank in your home, but we already have altars. It would be nice just to recharge everything in one go.

I hope what I write about doesn't come across as complaining that the game needs to be easier. I'm more about streamlining it, making it more efficient. Running back and forth to Arnheim to get your 40 pineapples and 80 seaweed doesn't make the game challenging. It just adds a little annoying factor in there of time consumption. Battlestaves were the same way. Running to the bank and back doesn't make the game 'harder.' they fixed that with having the staves noted. Instead of bank running, you can go do other things. I don't want them to make bosses easier, levelling easier, etc. Just clean up a few things here and there. The biggest improvement to this was the GE. Say what you will about trade limits, whatever. This isn't about that. Its about being able to put something up for sale and go about your business. COMPLETELY beats standing in a bank for hours screaming because you want to sell something.

Anyways, if you stayed long enough to read all my ramblings, I definitely appreciate it. I tend to ramble...

Back to skilling.

After about 4-5 weeks of really training nothing but combat, I hit the wall. I need to give the whip a rest for a little bit and get back to skilling. I've gotten a lot of levels, I love the fact that with slayer you can make some decent cash, you're training 3 skills at one time.

The new Aquatines are pretty cool, sadly its impossible to find them not packed with people. It amazes me just how much melee gear has skyrocketed in the past couple weeks. I've seen people offering 4M for a whip. It kind of tempts me to sell it.

A few friends and I have been doing some daily trips to the Zamorak general. It's pretty easy once you get used to it and we usually stay for 1-2 hours per trip with about 50 kills. It turns out to be decent cash. We split some Zammy Spear drops which are roughly 350k/person and a couple hilt drops that are about 5M/person. Plus its just fun killing something so big with such relative ease.

One of the things I' really like to try soon is the Corporeal Beast. However, with a lot of people who know what they're doing. It's not something I'd like to wander into with just a handful of friends not knowing what to expect. I'll have to do some research and see what its about.

With the charms I've been stocking up on, I decided to put the money to good use and got 70-73 Summoning. I used all my green and crimson charges. I need to get some Obsidian Charms to use up my blues. Tzhaar are ok to kill. They're kind of annoying, but the cape drops are pretty awesome.

Actually raising Summoning is an incredibly boring process. I love collecting charms, I never not pick one up. I like using familiars and seeing all the different ones with separate abilities. I just hate running to the obelisk and back and forth and back. I just wish there was a more entertaining way to raise xp.

Getting closer to the 2000 levels mark. I'm in the 1970s now, looking at the end of the hippies, into disco, soon the bowery will explode with Blondie, the Talking Heads and The Ramones. Thinking of levels as years still amuses me after all this time.

It's just a game

I try to tell myself that every now and then. However, part of it doesn’t sit right with me. It’s more than that. Games like Hearts and Minesweeper and Solitaire don’t have websites dedicated to them which are updated daily. Every aspect of the game is picked apart, scrutinized, analyzed, studied and documented. They are videotaped and posted on youtube set to some song I’ve never heard of.

It’s a social networking site as well. There are so many people I enjoy talking to on a daily basis where, if the game ended today, I would have no idea how to continue on our conversations. It’s not even game talk. Granted, that is always part of it, but its about news, sports, music, cultural differences, what does a rooster say in Norway opposed to the United States? (you’d be surprised how each country has a different answer to stereotypical animal noises – thank you David Sedaris).

I know people who have met each other playing, then went on to actually meet in real life and become friends. It’s something parents play with their kids, which is amazing.

Everyone gets something different out of it because each person puts something different into it. It’s amazing to see something so huge get broken down to such a level where people ignore the 457 different things available to do at any given moment, and choose to spend 15 minutes typing a forum rant up about the font selection.

According to Wiki, there’s 8.5 million active accounts. That’s more than most cities and even some entire countries. You’re part of something that is growing every day and keeps gaining momentum while it changes, experiments with new ideas, has an open forum for exchanging feedback between the company and customers trying to make it better. The game doesn’t limit you to certain servers so you always have the opportunity to meet new people.

Every time you log in something is different. You can do the same task 30 days in a row, but something will be new about. You’ll get different drops, maybe you’ll level unlocking something new to do, you’ll overhear a conversation which makes you burst out laughing, you’ll learn something new from a stranger with a bit of advice…

It’s fine to log in and get immediately to what you want to do, but do like Ferris Bueller so wisely said and stop and look around for a while.

War Ensemble

It’s been a month of so since my last post. To be honest, I couldn’t really think of anything to say that would be worth reading. I usually get halfway through something and decide its too boring and not post it.

I’ve been working on Slayer a bit recently. I went from 50-90 tasks complete relatively easy. I used to get really into Slayer, then I would get a task which would require me using a combat skill I wasn’t in the mood for training, and I would just sit on it for weeks. I switched from using Lapalok for every assignment to using Vanaka 1-9 and Lapalok for the 10th. The only time I really bank between Vanaka assignments is to stack up on pots. Mostly I keep a glory, tele runes, Bones to Peaches runes and alch runes in my inventory and I don’t really need much more.

For my 90th I got assigned 187 Gargoyles. I’ve never had them before. Actually, I’ve never been on the third floor of the Slayer Tower before. They weren’t bad, took me about 3 trips, but I got about 15 Adamant Boot drops and 3 G-Maul drops giving me about 700k from one task. I can see why people obsess over it. The little xp you get from it, the lots of CB xp you get from it and the potential for some good cash at the higher skills. It also got me to level 77 Slayer, so I’m happy about that.

I’m closing in on 2000 levels. I’m at 1951 now, with about 7 levels pretty close. I’m also closing in on my year end goal of 75+. Still a bit away, but I’m pretty sure I’m a little ahead of schedule. Either way, by the end of the year on both would be nice. Runecrafting might be the hard one (currently at 71), but with using penguin points towards it each week, I should be fine. I’m gathering plenty of charms so that when I decide on a Summoning push, I’ll be ok.

I tried Mobilising Armies. It seemed pretty interesting. Possibly an interesting way to get rid of some junk items and free up some bankspace. It might be a way for Jagex to get people to cash some of that in as to eliminate junk trades. No real idea what the higher rewards entail. Even if you’re not a fan of the game, you have to be a fan of the fact that its in Feldip Hills. Previously, the only bank around here for chopping Euchs was the one you had to complete As a Last (First? I forget..) Resort for. The bank at the mini game gives an option for those opposed to questing, but want Euchs.

The forums and even some conversations I was in yesterday were full of “I can’t believe they ruined the game again…” talk. Every once in a while they change the interfaces, yes, it happens. Every time some people act like the sky has fallen and threaten to quit and freak out. Here’s the thing. You get used to it. I heard the complaint yesterday “Why do they always completely ruin the game with interface updates instead of giving us more higher level things or more skills?!” My response was simply, “Like adding a pretty huge mini-game that’s been in development forever and announced at least 6 months ago?” Come on, people!

Everyone has the right to complain, but give it a shot. You logged in 10 mins ago. The game isn’t over. Its just such a downer to log in and be bombarded by complaints of doom & gloom. Give it a shot. You might like it in the long run.

Level, Level

Finally achieved it last night, got my 70+. I grabbed my clay hammer and started pounding out Carved Oak Tables for about an hour. Then I joined some friends for penguin hunting. Used those 15 points on Thieving then took a few runs at Pyramid Plunder. Plundering was terrible with a touchpad, however just doing a few runs was do-able.

I really can’t stand Thieving, but now I kind of want to get to 71 because the thought of a new room for Plundering in, interests me. I don’t really see how this is viewed as one of the most profitable skills though. I got a Pharaoh Scepter once, that’s good cash, but an extremely rare find. Maybe it’s the stalls, or the fact that maybe 50gp here and a Blood Rune there add up over the course of leveling… I don’t know.

I hate to admit it, but I kind of do obsess over the game a bit. Especially levels. If I can’t play, say a slow day at work, I’ll pull up the hiscores list and see what I should work on when I get home. Or I’ll compare my stats to friends over and over and see how they’ve been doing lately. Not in a competitive way, its just that if someone says they’re going for a certain level, and I don’t see them in a bit, I want to see if they reached their goal. If I just meet someone I’ll maybe pull up their stats. Not as a judgment, but maybe if they’re really good at something I have a problem with, maybe they’d be able to give some sage advice.

The other day when I wanted to work on Construction, I pulled up a few people’s scores because I had never used the butler before. I wasn’t sure how it worked and what to build. Ta-daa, friend’s on, got a high Con level, and bang, 2 levels down in the easiest of fashions. Everyone has their own way of doing things and its just the curious nature in me to see how people do things, what they like to do, and why they like to do it. It’s like studying sociology of an rpg. Some want to be rogues, some want to be mages, some warriors, others just skillers and crafters. If you put that together with the person’s actual personality, it is completely fascinating. It’s interesting to see what quirks, skills, habits, etc in real life carry over into the game.

In real life I work with a lot of numbers. In game, I calculate everything. I make spreadsheets based on my progress, calculate my skills, figure out which training methods give you how much xp in an hour, how many hours will it take to get a level, etc. I usually have a pen and paper at my desk as well as a calculator and am always using them. Some say that takes the fun out of it, hunt for hunting sake and if you get a level, then it’s a bonus. I don’t have that in me though. I think that’s why I’m not completely cb oriented and am pretty bad at Slayer. Non cb skills are much more constant and easier to calculate.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t do that with everything. I do like killing drags for drops, going to Godwars for fun, KQ, etc. Those I view as little vacations from experience gaining. Plus to break it down to the lowest level – going out with a group of friends and killing lots of really big monsters, its pretty cool.

One of the weird consistencies I’ve picked up on is that when someone has a low Crafting level, they tend to also have a low Farming level. It’s pretty easy to fly through Crafting after you do the Varrock Diary, which requires you to get your Farming up pretty high. I just like discovering little patterns like that.

Mr. Brownstone

I saw a $240M drop in the Party Room last night. Surprisingly, I didn’t lag out. A large number of D Legs, Zerker Rings, D Full Helm, etc. Kind of awesome to witness, but of course I couldn’t even tell if I popped a balloon or not. I think everyone in the world was there.

I haven’t had much to write about at all recently. I’ve been leveling, climbing the hiscores. Finally up to 90 WC. I’m just 2 levels (Theiving and Construction, both at 69) away from having every skill be 70 or over. My goal for the year was 75+, so I feel like I’m off to a good start.

Its interesting how levels are like drugs in Runescape. As you get higher up, they become further apart. When you get one, you feel that incredible rush of relief and joy. That last for a few minutes. Maybe even the night if you stayed up too late working on it and soak in the joy of it then crash right to sleep. This, of course, after you log out, check out hiscores and see how many ranks you moved up. Overall and in the skill. Shortly after, the feeling wears off. You start scrambling finding what you can level next based on how close the xp is vs based on what you have in your bank. Sometimes you blow all your savings just getting those quick little highs. Stealing Creation might as well be yelling “I got that pandemic!” out to you from the street corner because that game can make you level so much faster and cheaper.

It makes you start doing things that you don’t want to, just to get it. Power level on Oak Tables? Collect 4000 Snape Grass? Spend hours knee deep in water casting out that net? You know you want it…

50!

Got my 50th Slayer task yesterday. I think the reward was 250, if I remember correctly. Added Black Demons to my "never again" list. They're the first creature I ever put on there. I've been cancelling tasks more often recently. I've come to terms with the fact I'm just a little too weak for Waterfiends just yet.

In the past week I've gotten a Strength, Slayer, HP, Defence level, along with a few others. It's a great feeling when you can get a bunch of levels in a row, but it just means you aren't going to level for a while again.

There's a new Slayer monster coming out soon. You can give your name suggestion on the Official Runescape Forums. Its stated you'll need 78 Slayer to kill it. I'm about 20k xp from 75 at the moment. You know its going to drop something cool, and I want to be able to attack it when its released :)

Finally back home from a long work trip and hopefully can get a little more gametime in.

I need to do the new Missing my Mummy quest and reclaim my Questcape. I just don't seem to have the motivation.

I want to thank TCA for welcoming me aboard on Jax's recomendation. I love my old clan to death, they're amazing people. We just never do anything, and can't generate any attendance to planned trips. Which is sad, because group trips and teamwork are some of the most fun things to do in the game. I'm looking forward to new and exciting things!

Pissed

Star Find seems to be growing and I hate it. Someone please explain to me what the point of it is? I tagged a size 9 last night after soloing it. There was one other person there. We stood there for about 10 mins going through each of our friend lists scouring for a 90+ in mining (curse this 79 lvl!). It was pretty nice that we were the only ones there. After calls to friends, there were about 5 of us. 1 90+, 1 80+ and the rest of us 70+.

Right before we cracked it to a level 6, a cb lvl 51 shows up, claiming she only has 40 mining. Ok, fine, well wait it out. Two seconds later about 100 people show up. Boom, star is done. I was left with 10k xp. 5.8k from the tag, about 3.5k from the level 7 (with SC pick) and about 1k after Star Find showed up. There’s no excuse for getting 80 stardust from a level 7 star on. How do you not get 200 from a star that big??

Not only are they like a plague of locusts that hop, consume, hop, repeat, they are just incredibly rude people. What’s the point in insulting someone who is silently mining next to you not saying a word? To be obnoxious just for the sake of being obnoxious?

If someone, anyone, out there can explain to me the point of continually hopping worlds for less than 1kxp from a size 7 star, I’m all ears. You might as well just mine ores at that rate. I love star hunting, with a group of about 4 people. That’s the perfect size. Lately I’ve been soloing a lot. These clans take the whole point of the distraction out of it. As much as I love star hunting, I’d love jagex to put a limit on it like the evil trees. Two a day, regardless of size. Its extreme, and it sucks, but I really don’t see any other way. Every single world is being taken over. Either that or can we have separate servers for those over 25 who are sick of listening to childish insults for no reason?

Virgil Brigman Back Online...

Picked up my laptop last night! Its weird, having the same machine but now all the settings are reverted back to what they were because they replaced the hard drive. So its the same, but competely different. I need a couple of hours to turn off all the unnecessary stuff taht runs for no reason. It's kind of like Cherry 2000, if I can throw an obscure 80s sci fi reference out there. If you haven't seen it check it out. Its like Mad Max meets Terry Gilliam, set in the 80s version of the future. Now that you're completely confused, I'll continue.

Cashed in 45 Penguin Points for over 75k xp in RC to get me to 70. Leaving only Thieving (68) and Construction (66) under 70. Thieving I would have taken care of last night, but I'm having some mouse issues with the reworked computer and going through Pyramid Plunder on a touch pad seems like a nightmare.

My goal for the end of the year was 75+ and I feel like I'm on a good track to achieve that. Prayer, RC and Construction seem like the only ones which will be an issue. Theres about 34 weeks left in the year and using all on RC will bring that to about 78, so I'm sure the last month or so can go to another one of those skills. Who knows, maybe there'll be something that makes me really want to train Con that comes out.

I never knew that Tool Leprechauns noted herbs for you. Ah well, after hundreds of runs I don't think I'll change up my routine now. It's pretty simple. In inventory - 5 air runes, 1 law rune, cabbage port ring, skills necklace, ectophial along with spade, dibber, watering can, 4 herb seeds, 4 marigold seeds and I just use the leprechauns to store my compost/buckets. Ectophial - farm - skills to fishing guild - bank - farm - camelot tele - get flax from Geoffrey - bank - farm at Catherby - bank - cabbage port - farm - glory to edge - done. I tele to edge because I usually make a GE run afterwards to either sell the herbs or sell the marigolds. Marigolds sell for about 3k each and the seeds cost pennies, definitely worth while.

Did a star which took forever to find and even longer to mine. Got about 25k from it. Then did an evil tree which got me under 100,000 for Woodcutting. This amuses me a bit. WC was the last skill I got onto highscores for. It always stood out like a sore thumb. I hated training it. I don't think I got onto highscores with it until I got something like 66 or 67 before I broke onto it. Runescape Wiki now says the lowest to get on is 60 since the increase from 1M highscores to 2M highscores, so that sounds about right. I kind of love it now. Its my 4th highest skill. The Evil Trees, leprechaun magic, stealing creation are all major factors in it. As well as the Adze as motivation to get logs in order to get my FM up.

That said, its good to be back on! Hopefully I'll have something more interesting than just a status update for the next post.

What to do with 20 mins to play...

Haven’t been on much. Laptop should be coming back this week. I’m crossing my fingers it is because I leave for a two week work trip on Sunday and the thought of not having the internet as a fun distraction will lead to mind numbing boredom and 6 hours of ESPN a night.

I’ve been playing 5-20 minutes here and there when I can sneak on. Usually do a stave run and if I have extra time I do a Farming run, check on a star, check on a tree. I managed to get 80 Farming, 79 Mining (trying to push it to 80 for the Stealing Creation games plus level 8 stars). I haven’t cashed in my last 3 weeks of penguin points, I think I’ll have enough to get me to 70 Runecrafting. I’m debating that or Construction, which still sits at my lowest at 66. I’ve only used tears to train it over the past year or so. I just hate how expensive it is. I still have my 400k xp from the Grandmaster quest, with no new skill likely this year, I’m flirting with the possibility of using them. We’ll see.

I can’t wait until I can get a solid chunk of time to grab a few levels that I’ve been close to for a while now. Especially since it has rained all last week and looks to continue all this week. I’d also like to get in about a day of Stealing Creation quick games because I need to stock up on those tools. I go through them so fast, just by doing one or two stars or trees a day.

Wanting to play and not being able to is a bit annoying. Its weird, if I know I’m going to get 20 mins of playing time, I usually spend time before that planning every move so that its not wasted by standing in a bank. Its like login, tree since you’re close to the GE anyway, house teleport, check on star, herb run. If any distraction is somewhat close, then the go to plan is assembling staves and alching, if they’re both over and hour away, note the time and world in case you get to go back on, and work on something that I decided earlier would be my fall back skill, which changes each login. I’ve made quite a bit of money because I’m not really on enough to spend it, I’ll probably just put it towards a skill sometime when I get my computer back.

My outfit has remained pretty constant as well. Seer’s headband, Falador shield, Magic Secauters, Varrock Armor 3, boots of lightness, Amulet of Glory. This pretty much covers everything from stars to trees to herb runs. Inventory has pretty much remained constant as well, Lava Stave, Air runes, Law runes, kindling, tinderbox, one of each pickaxe and hatchet from SC, plus two backup proto tools yet to be transformed. I alter it a little for herb runs, to make room of course. I think I’m pretty well set for whatever they throw my way.

Also I cleared my ignore list. I only had a handful of names and I didn’t recognize any of them anyway. I hate searching for penguins when they’re first released, it frustrates the hell out of me. This way I can play all week and I keep the location of any of those spies I come across in normal travels on my ignore list. This way right before they reset, I only have to find 6 instead of spotting the same one twice several times. If I came across one late Wednesday night, no way am I remembering which one it was on Tuesday early evening. Helps save a little bit of time.
I’m rambling and probably shouldn’t even post this. You should see the amount of un-posted entries I write. Ah well, I’m bored.

Stellar Dawn

Ren wrote this incredible article about MechScape.

There are a few things that cross my mind from time to time while playing the game. One of which is what would ever happen if the game ended? Would I continue to keep in contact some way or another with my friends in the game? Am I so different from them that if we take away the one common factor we have, is there enough there to continue on that friendship?

I have to admit it, I’m not big into MMORPGs. I tried EverQuest for about a week and hated it. I really have no interest in World of Warcraft. One of the things that drew me to Runescape was it being browser-based. However the more important aspect of it was that it was incredibly less pretentious than the other major MMORPGs. With EQ, I felt like I couldn’t get a handle of it, on top of that I was being killed about every 2 seconds and taunted. I’m sure if you had been playing for years its fine, but starting off, it doesn’t necessarily make you feel welcome.

The more and more I read about MechScape, I find the more it appeals to me. It seems like it is going to be geared towards an older crowd. I’m also more into a sci-fi setting than I am of a more Renaissance era type. As interested in times that pre-date guns, cars, etc which Runescape has gotten me in, the possibility of a futuristic setting is more to my personal liking. However, this brings up a number of issues. The first of which means that I would either try MechScape and not like it, try to do some sort of balance between RS & MS or just stop playing RS entirely. I can never understand how people play 10 different games at once or even have 5 RS accounts. I have enough trouble finding time for my one character on one game.

There will inevitably be a huge flood to MS as it is released, being that a lot of people want to be the first to do certain things. With this, at least everyone is starting out on the same level. This is very appealing to me. This takes out a big chunk of the intimidation factor. Also, one of the reasons I hated doing quests was that there were so many of them. Each needing about 4 other quests as a requirement. Now that I’m done, its not hanging over my head, I have no problem with staying current with them. I know some of my RS friends would probably try it. I’ve already lost a few in game friends to FunOrb and Arcanists. However MS is even more split up with 4 different races. Will inter-race communication be allowed? Who knows.

I also don’t want to think that all the development I put into RS has gone to waste. It’s a game I worked hard at for years, I feel proud of it. Not only of what I’ve accomplished, but how I’ve accomplished it. There’s no release date yet, which makes me think this will be something not happening in 2009, but in 2010. It just feels like there’s this weird impending break-up looming and I’m not sure what to do about it. Until its released I’ll just go about my business.

Still no computer to play from. It’s easier to write a quick blog at work than it is to try and get away with playing. Been sneaking on for about 2 mins each day though to buy staves. For some reason I feel really drawn to Woodcutting. Not exactly why. I find it relaxing, much like Fishing. I’m split between better xp of the SC hatchet and getting bonus Firemaking experience using the adze. Any thoughts on using either?

Also, I figured out the problem with taking screen shots I was having. Look forward to them once I'm back online.

It's official...

Best Buy's 72 hour diagnostic guarantee (which the guy told me takes about 5 days - figure that one out). He figures its a Vista problem, which conveniently isn't covered in the warranty I paid about $300 for, which would take an additional 2-4 weeks.

So 3-5 weeks without a laptop... Do yourself a favor kids, if you bought a laptop with a warranty that includes everything such as spilling coffee on it, cracking the screen, dropping it... Before you take it in to get it fixed, run it over with your car. That will prevent it from being a "software problem."

I feel like I've been sidelined with a torn ACL or something... Do I need to go down to the minors before I start playing the actual game again, just to make sure I still have it?

And Boom Goes the Dynamite...

I got a few levels over the past week or so. 87 Woodcutting being the best of it. I'm closing in on a Hitpoints, Ranged, Firemaking skill as well.

I've been playing a lot of SC. Took a few SC coifs down to Avansies to pick up some noted Addy Bars. I'm failing at Slayer month bad. The more I do it, the more I realize I just don't like combat that much. Without a mini-game or something, just standing there attacking something bores the heck out of me. I know its the only way to really train the skill, but blah, I just think of all the other things I could be doing, which are just as repetative, but that I like more.

Last night it happened. My 9 month old laptop decided to just end it. I tried everything I could to get it going again. It turns on, I open the browser, its ok for about 5 mins, then I get a few error messages and it freezes to the point where even Ctrl Alt Del won't shut it down. At least its still under warranty. I'm going to take it in tomorrow or tonight, but who knows how long it will take. So for now, I'll try to sneak on for about 5 mins to get staves, but that's about it. :(

I might as well take advantage of the finally nice weather anyways... Maybe it was a hint. Either way, I hope to be back skilling soon!

Entering the Modern Era

I completed the Chosen Commander and Glorious Memories to regain my Quest Cape. I'm really not a fan of Dorgesh Kaan. Sure it looks pretty awesome, but I'm terrible with finding my way around it. I did that on Tuesday, Wednesday was the new quest and I made myself remember how much I hate doing quests on the first day they're released. I like the Relekka quests for some reason. I think there's just so many different places to go, all pretty close to each other and easily accessible.

After I was done with those I alched my way to 85 Magic. Which is awesome because I can now teleport block. I don't even pk, I just like having that ability if I ever wanted to use it. Moreso, I'm happy about the Fishing Guild teleport on Lunar.

That level got me some big fireworks as it marked my 1900th level. I've been averaging around 100 levels every 3 months for the past year or so. This one took me a week longer. I know that the next one will absolutely take me longer. If I can get to 2000 in about 5 months, I would be happy with that.

This month's skill is Slayer. I better brush up on my cb skills, I haven't trained any of that in a long time...

3-0!

Its official kids, I'm 3o!

Forced my way to 1897 levels. 6k from Mining, 45k from a Magic and 47k from a Firemaking level. Maybe I can get 1900 in the next 24 hours and have 2 celebrations.

Baseball starts this next weekend and I have to give a shout out to 15 miles away (Gooo villanova!!)

Daily Grind

Real life has been pretty hectic, I haven’t gotten on to play much. Clan trips keep getting cancelled left and right. It kind of makes me wish I had the time I spent prepping for them back.

For the few hours I get to play, I’ve got a pretty decent routine down. Staves, check on tree, check on star and do either if they are close in time. If both are over and hour, I’ll take my Graahk and hunt chins until it runs out. Its really annoying that the familiar stays so close to you when hunting. I just want to check my box, I don’t need to chat with it. Its amazing to me how much the bonuses help in hunting. I take a dip in the mud bath and summon the graahk, using pots when the mud bath wears off. It’s a difference of getting 3 chins out of 4 traps or getting 1 out of 4. One more summoning level til the Arctic Bear familiar which gives a +7. For trees, if it’s a low level, I’ll focus on chopping the tree as much as possible, only chopping the roots when they’re impossible to avoid, saving the kindling for the higher level trees.

The past week I’ve stalled at 1893 levels, however I’m close to about 8 which I’ll see how many I can get this weekend. I think I’ll be able to cross the 1900 barrier.

No team for the Jagex Cup. I think I’ll just use it as motivation and train whatever skill it is solo. I’ve been thinking about signing up for one of those 300+ people clans I see all over the forums recruiting people. I never PvP, but just to say I was part of it and check it out. Its kind of annoying when you’re excited to try something and can’t because you can’t solo it. It reminds me of standing in Varrock going “Need black arm band member!!!!!!” over and over again for hours.

Jagex Cup

Random post - but if anyone needs another for the skilling part of the Jagex Cup, I could definitely use a team. I've got 1893 total with my lowest being 66 Construction. This is as close as begging as I'm going to get.

Ramblings

I really have no tolerance for cheating. It bothers me also that I don’t know what to do when friends do it. Lately a lot of people I know have been doing a lot of account sharing. The one who hates quests that’s friends with the one who doesn’t like cb, they switch, one quests while the other plays Pest Control. It’s been so much that when I sign on, I never know who’s who anymore. They think it’s amusing, I just think its still cheating.

As much as I hate quests (and I really really hated questing), I did them all. I did them all to unlock all the places I could. I sat there and died time after time after time. I had offers of “why don’t you just let me do this for you” after hours and hours of struggling, but I can’t do that. Not only do I not want you on my account (even though I trust you), its that *I* want to know how to do it. Some quests teach you stuff you need to know later. Path of Glouphrie was easy because I already had experience using that stupid exchanging machine.

I’m Aries, so I got stubbornness in me. When you have me over to your house to celebrate you getting your cape, don’t make a statement like “I can’t believe I did all the quests!” because I will call you out on it by saying “Don’t you mean *most* of the quests?” And that makes me look like a jerk. Maybe it is bitterness because I tried over and over and over things and you signed on going “wow they did a lot of quests for me” but its still against the rules. I’m not talking about anyone in particular, just a trend I see occurring. It seems that if friends so it, then others see it and view it as ok. How do you step in and say, cut it out, or at least maybe stop proclaiming it out loud to everyone, and not be viewed as the one that’s being the jerk in that situation?

Ok vent over. I’ve had lots of fish from my kingdom stacking up over a while now. I decided that since I was at 96 Cooking for like 6 months, that I’ll just pull the trigger, do it 2 hours a night and get it over with. I’ve gotten it up to 98 but I still am not excited about it. I don’t view it as much, I’ve really only cooked when I needed food. I hated training it so its not like its something I’ve toiled over for hours and hours and hours at a time. One of those things that just kinda happens. I’m not thrilled by the cape, I don’t really like the color and am not that into the emote. I think I’m prouder of my Mining being 77. That’s a skill I’ve worked my adze off for. No disrespect to anyone that likes to cook, its just not my thing. Not every skill is for everyone. Maybe the fact that I’m a terrible quester/cb’er contributed to this. I’ve needed a *lot* of food in my RS life. I’ve eaten enough sharks to put them on the endangered species list myself alone. The best part though, is that and the questcape knocks out two of my goals for the year and its early March. I’m off to a good start.

Kinda bummed in clan reaction to the Jagex Cup. I think it’s be something to be stoked for, but when I started doing the numbers, its going to be hard. We definitely can’t do PvP, some of those clans not only have 100+ members, but they’re all good at it. Might be interesting to watch though. SC I’d be willing to do, although never done it with cb involved. I don’t think we can pull 20 people together. It actually has me wondering if we can pull 10 people together to skill who are actually into it. Some just don’t like competition. Which is had, because I’m kind of a competitive person. I just view it as good motivation. I don’t actually care who wins, winning’s nice but losing isn’t the end of the world, it’s the competition itself that I enjoy. So I don’t know, we’ll see what happens. I’m stoked on it, I think it’s a great idea. It’s also a lot of work for Jagex to take on when they don’t have to. It’s like volunteering to have a giant headache, and doing it with a smile.

That said, is there a way to watch Clan Wars? I’ve never been there. Even though I wouldn’t be competing, I think a giant PvP tournament would be fun to watch. Is there a way to peek through the portal and see the action? If not, there definitely should be for this.