The Great Escape

I've been working at a client for the past two weeks. Sadly, I don't have any internet access there, which is making work a bit of a pain. With my job I usually have to wait for them to gather and bring me info so that I can work on it. This leaves me with nothing really to do for an hour or two at a time. This is when I usually check my email, log on to my company's server remotely to do other work, or whatever. However with no internet, just sitting in an office with nothing to do is mind-numbingly boring. This had me looking for anything built into my laptop to keep me amused.

I started looking at the games already installed on my HP. Its different from the Hearts, Freecell, Solitaire and Minesweeper we had a few years ago. This has an interface kind of like iTunes. You open the files, get 2 chances to play each game and then are charged a subscription fee. The games are ok, and it was enough to keep me occupied. Anyways, there is a point and yes, I'm getting to it. A few days ago, I noticed one of the options was Funorb. I thought that was a little weird, but it figured reasonable. Today (I think the games options gets updated when I'm online at home) I noticed another option - Runescape HD.

Runescape must not only be overhauling game content, but really stepping up the advertising. The link takes you to a runescape page giving a short description and basically an ad pitch. You can view it here.

This seems like it will hit a huge audience, especially in F2P. I don't remember how I came across runescape, although I'm sure I googled something like "free online multiplayer games." This new demographic is much wider, the general person playing around on a laptop looking to cure boredom. Someone who may has never played an MMORPG or even knows what those letters stand for. The HD overhaul is exactly what the game makers needed in order to open the RS market to a wider audience.

I would love to see a new influx of casual gamers into the game. Its sort of what Nintendo did for making the Wii not only for hardcore gamers, but opening it up to everyone. If we get an influx of new players and the game grows, that most certainly means new content. Some of those other HP games offered run in real time, so if you don't keep checking on them, your fish tank dies, your villagers go hungry, whatever. This is exactly like the daily chores that are becoming more and more part of the game.

It looks like Runescape is expanding more than ever, and that's something I'm glad to see. There's always those rumors about it ending, and that's always hard to cope with when you've built a solid base of friends that are only based in one realm. We've come this far, its always good to see something we love embracing new people and the community opening to such a wider audience.

Welcome to Awesome World.

Pain in the Adze

It took me roughly a month and a half, but I finally got to 92 Firemaking from 74. The xp flies by when you’re used to Runecrafting, Woodcutting, Fishing and other slow xp skills. I went on to get my Inferno Adze from the All Fired Up minigame and let me just say, it’s a lot more difficult than some guides make it out to be. I had already done the requirements for the first 10, so I figured the additional 4 wouldn’t be such a big deal. I went around to loading them all up, ended up dying twice, once at each the one near the temple in the Wilderness and the other on the Frozen Plateau (is that what its called? Near the Wildy Agility course). Realized then that even when you get back to your grave in time, you automatically lose the Fire Ring and Fire Gloves. I went around to lighting them and I wasn’t quick enough. I used Maples and thought I’d have plenty of time being that Runescape Wiki states that you can do it in about 9 minutes. Perhaps I’m just slow.

I got my Fire Ring and Gloves back but had to do it all again. Died again in the deep wildy, losing the ring & gloves again. Will I never learn? This time I just really wanted it so I actually broke down and bought some Magic Logs. Normally, I’d just go get them myself, but I just wanted this over with. I bought 200 of them and just used them for the first 8 beacons and used my stock of Maples for the remainder. Died lighting them, but managed to get them lit. Got my Adze, finally, but it kills me that I missed out on so much xp by not having the gloves & ring when lighting. If you take anything from this, just know to put them in the bank while filling the beacons and only wear when you’re ready to go on lighting them. I’m super protective of the Adze knowing that I lose it when I die and I don’t want to go through that again. If the Wildy stars come, I might just take a Rune Pickaxe instead.

I didn’t realize how competitive Hiscores is. In the past week I’ve gotten 6 levels, yet have moved up 409 spots. Its almost as if every level has me just barely clinging to the inside 50,000 mark.

I feel like I’ve only been Firemaking lately so I wanted to get a few levels in other things yesterday. I got about 120 tears which led me very close to a Herblore level. I really need to train this more as I’m sick of my tears going to that when they would be better suited saving me money on Construction or just time Runecrafting. I had 14 Gorak claws in the bank so I stopped over to the Cosmic Being’s place to pick some Starflowers. That was enough to get me to 64 Herblore. This leaves me at just an Herb and a Con level from 65+.

I was also close to a Slayer level so I grabbed my Bones to Peaches runes and headed down to Hellhounds. Sunday must be Slayer day because I had to hop worlds a disgusting amount of time. Got my level, got a clue then got out of there before finishing my task. I have to go back, but Hellhounds can be incredibly boring if you don’t break it up by doing a clue when you get one. 5 Rune Platebodies, Rune Axe and 50 Nature Runes. Whatever, I’ll take it. No puzzleboxes, 1 Wildy location, no co-ordinates, not bad for about 10 minutes of teleports.

I did some quests. Did As a First Resort and with the unlimited run, decided it was a good time to bang out Between a Rock… After that I completed Elemental Workshop II, all were relatively easy and I really liked the puzzle pool thing in As a First Resort. I have no reason for not completing these quests earlier. This leaves me with… 12(?) quests left to go. I need to do the Phoenix one as well as I’m all for daily xp rewards.

As a First Resort’s Hunting xp reward got me close to a level so I decided to set out on my first trip to get Red Chins. That didn’t last too long at all. Every world had a lot of people competing for a spot. When I finally got one (after about 30 hops), I saw how slow they were. Lots of clicking, very few catches and slow xp. I decided I had enough and went to Red Salamanders where I leveled within about 15 minutes.

Not sure what to work on next. Tonight I’ll go pingu hunting. I like to do this at the last possible time I can in the week. I can’t play on Tuesday nights so this leaves Mondays. The reason being is that I like to see how many of these little things I can stumble upon while just playing. The sound is pretty distinctive so they’re easy to find if you’re near one. I’ve gotten 4 this week and some weeks I get the majority just doing stars, farming runs, etc. It saves time when you go out to look for them, only needing a few and, to be honest, its kind of fun just randomly finding one.

The Eagles bowed down to The Buzzsaw that is the Arizona Cardinals yesterday. What can I say, they were just outplayed. Good luck to them in the Super Bowl. Pitchers and catchers report in 27 days. Bring on the warm weather and the Fightins!

2009 Comes A'blazin in

Happy New Year everyone! The new year started out in an interesting way. We had a clan party for 3 members who got their Quest Capes a couple weeks prior and one Cooking Skillcape. We had a fun time in the deuling ring and then set out to GWD for a Bandos run. This was my first time, but felt confident being that we had about 7 people. Our tank got Ring of Life tele’d and the general decided to turn his attention onto me. We soon found out why when all the other worlds were full, this one was empty – lag. Despite getting my HP down to the low teens several times, I managed to survive, clicking furiously of course. I got a Rune Platebody as a reward. We did another 2 kills until we had a death and everyone else was lagging hard so we decided to call it quits. The person who died didn’t want to go back in and reclaim his stuff, being that he lost nothing really valuable. A valiant attempt by everyone though. I wouldn’t mind going back, now that I know what I’m getting into.

I’ve continued on with Firemaking, getting my level to 90 yesterday. I took some breaks to do a few stars, make staves, etc. Mainly I just want it to 92, get the adze, then not deal with it for a while. I was at my wit’s end yesterday burning maples. To speed things up I sold my Dragon Woodcutting Axe and used the money from that to buy some Magic Logs. I justified this by the Adze being free, but the equivalent of the D Axe. That makes somewhat sense, right? Anyway, I just have to burn about 1,200 of them to get to 91. Sounds much better than 2,800 Maples.

A friend was working on spinning Flax to get a Crafting level she was close to. It’s decent money and I only need to do about 1k for a level myself so I thought I’d join. Made about 100,000gp relatively quick and got myself to 80 Crafting. Glories here I come! I’ve had a few Dragonstones sitting in my bank waiting for just that.

I went penguin hunting yesterday as well. Riod’s chat got flooded with spammers and somehow I got kicked & banned in the mess. I had about 6 done, but knew the ones I was missing were on Lunar, Dragontooth, Nietz and one in the wildy. I don’t really understand the people who beg for updates on penguins on places like Dragontooth Island. The place is so tiny you can almost see the entire island in one screen. Anyways, used those and I got 64 construction. Finally a telescope with a window for stars that is less than a half hour. I also built myself a Teak Armor Case which I can’t wait to use to free up some bankspace.

I have less than 100k xp to a level in about 12 skills, so hopefully I’ll be able to add to the total fairly easily. I won’t be able to play much this week, so all those levels might have to wait a bit. I leave for Cancun early Thursday morning and get back Sunday night. I can’t wait to lay in the warm sun, even if it does mean I have to miss the Eagles/Giants game. Hopefully the pilot will give us updates.