Monday, August 23, 2010

A Fistful of GP

I took a look back at some of my past blog entries over the year. It’s nice to be able to do that, and is kind of the reason why I have this blog. Two things stood out to me as I tried to see if I posted a screen shot of my hiscores at the beginning of 2010 (I didn’t). The first is that I got 85 Slayer in December. I just now got 86 Slayer recently. I don’t slay as much as I should.

The other, I was a lot more excited about the game then. Most of the posts took on a “Oh awesome! Look at what I just did!” kind of vibe. Sort of in the way Full of Pie writes her blog. I don’t know if its just that I’m super busy with real life & work or I’m just in a rut or what. I log on to chat with friends, but I don’t really want to do anything. I end up bankstanding. I’ll do maybe 10-30 mins of something then get bored and bank stand before doing something else. It’s not that I’m sick of the game, I just don’t feel motivated. Before anyone says to quit or not play, it’s the talking with friends that I really enjoy. The game has sort of taken a background to a social thing I guess. Everything comes and goes and is cyclical. In a few months I’ll be playing happier than ever again.

We got screwed on the Jagex Cup. Timbo claims we didn’t post the signup on the last week, we claim we did. Doesn’t really matter what we say, all the posts are hidden anyways (not sure for what reason though). The mining week I didn’t mind, but fishing & cooking followed by fishing again was annoying. Putting in so many hours on two skills where I don’t need to level isn’t a lot of fun. It’s fun in the name of competition and trying to help your team, but in the end where your work isn’t even counted, it lets the wind out of your sails a bit. So many teams had 0xp/hr with nothing counting, and we don’t even get credit for competing each week while getting all the required sessions in… blah.

Jagex’s stance of refusal to work with players has really ruined something that has potential. I don’t understand why they can’t just be open to players about what’s going on. Timbo was constantly late releasing information with no explanation whatsoever. Also when he stated the detailed information release date, and it came out about 5 days after that, he just claims “well I wasn’t in the office.” Listen, we get that, but we also put a lot of time into these things. A “I’m getting the detailed information together, but it looks like its going to take a bit. I’ll get to it as soon as I can” would be much better instead of giving us a timeline to rely on, then to break. The lack of even clearly defining the rules is a bit absurd. They’d really have to directly address a lot of issues before I think I’ll participate in it again.

I know some fellow bloggers out there make some money off of your sites. Some probably a decent amount, others maybe just a few bucks. I never have because I feel like it would change the content of this site. If money started being a motivator, it’d be like work. I’m pretty happy with that choice today. The city of brotherly love, where I reside has decided that everyone who makes money from blogging, needs to buy a $300 business permit in order to operate. So the guy that made say $11 dollars last year from advertising revenue on his site about say, where to find a good steak in the city has just been handed a bill. This isn’t something they are instating going forward, as if “if you’re going to make money you need to do this” which would let you reassess if you want to do it or not. This is an invoice, if you’ve made money with it in the past, now you have to pay. I’m sure I wouldn’t have made close to $300 with this site to cover the ridiculous cost of a business permit. I will say, if you ever wanted to find out a way to make freelance writers really pissed, really quick – this is the way to go.

The second XP weekend has been announced. I spent a ridiculous amount of planning for the last one and was rewarded pretty well for all the effort. What are my plans for this one? Nothing. I’m going on vacation to the other side of the country for a friend’s wedding. I’m a little relieved to be honest. I have a nice stack of herbs sitting in my bank leftover from when I got my Herblore up to 90. (I was originally holding off on leveling, but it was killing me just seeing them sit there) I’ll wait a few more days and sell them and some other Summoning seconds I have stored for a nice profit. I’ll plant my highest level tree seeds before because I’m sure I can log on for 10 mins to do the circus and tree run real quick. That will only take like 10 minutes. It’s nice not having to stress about it though. I’d probably just use the time doing Agility or Runecrafting or Hunting anyway. Working on the skills that are my lowest and really require no prepping.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Part square, part drape.

I've been a little all over the place lately. In the game and in real life. In real life I've been traveling and working non-stop. Probably 3-4 days home and 1.5 days off in the last several weeks.

In game, spotty hotel wireless connections kind of limit your activities. Each place is different though. I've learned I can do 1 and maybe 2 med dungeons before I'm sick of dungeoneering. I just don't have it in me to do it for hours on end. I like the idea of making everything you need, but just to start at zero all over again gets on my nerves after a while.

I've been getting some levels that I've been close to. I got 79 Hunting, 93 Attack, 91 Defense, 96 Hitpoints (I'll call it Constitution when they actually do something with it) and am working on 92 Crafting (so I can pot up for that 95 Crafting effigy in my bank) and 85 Slayer. I made it to 130cb lvl! I was pretty happy to see that flash up on screen.

I've come to the realization that I have no real need to level Construction at all. Other than to get levels of course, which I love. However, there's nothing I want that I'll say "I can't wait to get X Con lvl so I can..." Things are flatpacked. When I redid my house, I put mostly the highest level items in it so I could clear out some bankspace.

Still no update on what happened with the skilling jagex cup, completely disappointing. We were supposed to get additional information regarding all the other clans last wednesday or thursday, its now almost a week overdue. Can I say I'm surprised? Not really. To be honest I just thought they would release the name of the winning clan and nothing else. It's such a shame that a contest with such potential is so poorly run. Especially when minimal information is required from the mods. Simple questions like "Can we banked cooked fish?" Don't even get an answer until halfway through the week.

It's weird to relate, but its very similar to being an Eagles fan and having to listen to Andy Reid and Joe Banner do press conferences.

Closing in on 2200 total levels. 2194 at the moment. I feel like I log on more for the social aspect of the game at the moment. I think I'm waiting for a decent update to feel inspired about something. I did get my first ever abby demon task which was pretty exciting, then backed by an abby spectre task kinda takes the air out of those sails.

At the bottom of this blog where I'm supposed to tag it with labels it says "E.g. scooters, vacation" I feel like that would be so much cooler.

Monday, August 2, 2010

No posts?

I haven’t had much to write about, to be honest. Work has me all over the place, so does the new house. I’m finding time to play, but mainly sedentary tasks.

I didn’t level for a long time. What was I doing? I bought 25k grimy irits. I cleaned them and stuffed them in vials. Riveting… I needed the downtime though, also when you rely on spotty hotel wireless for 2 straight weeks, it doesn’t really give you the opportunity to do anything daring. I

I made 15k super attacks which got me from 83 to 88 herblore. At that point I had 10k unfinished irit pots. That would be enough to get me to 90, but leaving me with 25k super attacks which sell for 700gp each. I decided to sell all the unfs, for about 3.1k each and bought 5k avantoe to make my super attacks into extremes. This would actually get more experience (1.1M opposed to 1M), as well as had some cash left over including extremes I can use later to make into overloads.

I’ve reached 89 herblore so far, with more than enough to get 90 in the bank. After that, I’ll assess the cash situation and see where we stand. My goal is to make 5k of each potion needed for overloads, letting the leveling come along with that. I just want to make a ton of potions I can use later, that should I reach the level, make into overloads that way I have a decent level, plus a stockpile of potions to use. I figure 5k overloads would keep me content for trips for a good amount of time.

I always say it, but when motivation strikes, you really have to run with it. I’m content to be sitting at W39 Castle Wars mixing potions for the time being. A few steps closer to all levels 90 (my year end goal). I should achieve 90 by the end of the day or tomorrow, depending on how much rl work/life I need to attend to.

It’s August 2nd, I’ve been waiting for the treasure trail updates all week. I’d think with the dungeoneering update, this one would be pretty basic. A few new items, a few new spots and boom, done. Maybe there’s more to it than I think. That or maybe the other updates took more attention than planned. Either way, I’m still looking forward to it.