Thursday, March 5, 2009

10, 10, 10 , 10, for everything, everything, everything...

Over the past 2 years there’s been some major renovations in the Runescape world. Removal of the Wildy, introduction of PvP worlds, GE, HD, While Guthix Sleeps, Summoning, bank tabs, Decanetc. There has also been some minor ones that go unmentioned or are just sidenotes along with a bigger update. Here’s my top 10 minor updates in the past year or so (in no particular order):

1) Fairy Rings - When dialing in a Fairy Ring destination code, the wheels would only go one way and you could only do one at a time. This was incredibly annoying when you were trying to get someplace in a hurry. Now the rings go both ways and you can do them without having to wait for the first one to finish setting. A few seconds here and there adds up over time.

2) Ectophial - I *hated* that I would need to get to Port Phas, I go to grab my ectophial and realize, its empty. That long trek back to the temple was a bit of a walk of shame. Now its impossible to forget to fill it because it automatically does it for you when you use it to tele there.

3) Bone Grinder - Upstairs at ecto. I can’t tell you how many Dragon Bones I’ve buried there instead of loaded into the grinder. You had to insert, grind and collect each one. Now you just set it and forget it.

4) Map - The in-game map saves me from having to have a separate window open and flipping back and forth between browser screens. Also, the new “You are here” indicator is helpful as well. If you click to run somewhere, open your map, you can see your X as you’re still running. Amusing.

5) Decant - Making potions is annoying enough, making (3) into (4) usually led to accidental drinking of doses and time wasted standing in a bank. Now you can make all the (3) into (4) in your inventory all at once thanks to the helpful Herblore guy in the GE. This is great because its right next to the bank and clears up some bankspace in a pinch.

6) XP - It used to be when you would hover your mouse over a skill, it would just show you how much xp you had. In order to figure out how much needed to get to the next level, you’d need to have an experience chart open (as well as your map), pencil, paper and a calculator near by. Also lots of cursing when you realized you were wrong. The little addition of “xp needed to next level” makes it so much easier to judge what you need to be doing.

7) Grimy Herbs - So much better than “Unidentified Herb.” Cut back a lot on herb scamming, also just makes it easier when planning what you’ll use them for later. I don’t like having stuff in my bank that’s ’unidentifiable.’

8) Bird Nests - LOVE the audio when nests fall out of the tree now. I cringe when I think about all the nests I might have missed in the past just because I didn’t notice a dot of red on the mini-map or a small brown dot on the ground next to me.

9) Dragon fire - Between chat, clan chat, “Your shield absorbs some of the dragon’s breath”, etc, chances are, you’d miss that message that your Anti-Dragonfire potion has worn off and you’re about to get a little hot under the collar. Now not only have the added a warning that it was about to run out, before it had, they also made the text a different color so that it stands out and added an audio warning as well. This has saved me several times.

10) High Alch - Not only is the animation less obnoxious, but more importantly, they moved the icon. It couldn’t be done as easy as before. That’s not the good part, its that they could have left it, then they had the update moving it back. That’s awesome. Nothing goes perfectly. It happens. What I love is that they could have left it, but were more on the “we’re wrong, we’ll put it back” side. Well played.

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