The Piscatoris Intelligencer

I'll take 'Senioritis' for 1200

2012-02-11T11:58:00.001-05:00

Saw this on jeopardy, thought it needed to be shared.

Update

2012-02-10T10:43:00.000-05:00

I haven’t had much to write about lately. I’ve still been playing with lots of new things since I last posted anything meaningful. Prayer cape, potion flasks, troll invasion, all great additions. Making flasks is currently funding my daily staff purchases but I assume that will only last another day or two before they drop down to a price where I start considering actually using them opposed to selling them.

I’ve been pretty good about making sure I harvest my morchella mushrooms twice a day. I have over 500 now and about 1.5k fellstalk pots (u) which I’m saving for bonus weekend which should be sometime in March.

I’ve also been on a mission to get the hybrid sets of armor. I have the boots from Pest Control. I’m currently working on the legs from Soul Wars and mannnnn, its taking for-ev-er. I can’t tell you how many points I’ve cashed in or games I’ve played and still nada. I did go from 90-91 Ranged cashing the points in and am only about 50k from 92 Range. I got 99 Pray several months ago so I’m using my points on Range. I was ice barraging for a while, which is amusing but I’m terrible at it. Its still nice to see the big numbers come up on the xp meter when you start doing it right though.

I used up my skoll boots at the barb agility course. Watching that xp melt away felt great. It was to a point where I actually didn’t mind doing agility for a few days. That said, I went from 90-92 and I’m happy with that. After bonus weekend I’ll start doing some BA again to recharge my horn.

My drive to level is to really just do that, level. I have a good amount of friends who are maxed in the game. Some still play but many have lost interest and start something else, another game. My ultimate goal, as I’m sure is everyone else’s, is to max. I’m at that so-close-yet-so-far point I think. Most of my levels are 90+ with only 4 skills in the 80s (RC, Con, Slay, Hunt). Still that road from 92-99 is pretty harsh. I do get jealous to an extent every time I see that max cape. I want it so bad. Maybe in a year or two I’ll get to throw that thing over my shoulders.

I haven’t really had much cash since I spent the dough on bones getting 99 prayer. I luckily did that right before the frost dragon update when frost bones were at the lowest in a while. This is the first time I’ve lucked out with RS timing. I usually get the short end of the stick when it comes to that. Since then I hover around the 1-2 mil mark. I’m hoping to hit the RS lotto with a big drop that’ll fund some skills which I should be training, but are kinda useless (construction, I’m looking in your direction). To get con and herblore out of the way would be great. I’m almost 96 herb which is great and incredibly annoying at the same time. At 96 I’ll be able to make the strong naturalist potions in dungeons. Being 95 and needing to pot up to make a pot sucks. Again, so-close-yet-so-far.

Everyone seems to be fighting Jad for their firecapes in order that they can get their firecape 2. To say I have no interest in fighting 2 jads doesn’t even scratch the surface of how I feel. I’ve said it before, I suck at just one jad. 0-23. And before you say it, yes I have seen ______’s video, yes I know how to pray switch, yes whatever else you’re going to suggest me. I’ve heard it all. Call it operator error. I know everything I should do, it’s the execution that’s an issue. I am happy that its coming out for others, but its not content that I’ll be checking out anytime soon.

I wish I had anything more interesting to write about. I log in, do some things for an hour or two and log out I want to start doing boss trips again, but even when I’m doijng that, I’m thinking about how I could be skilling instead. I thought about nuking this blog, but I’ll keep it running. If anyone goes through these past posts and finds anything helpful, then it served its purpose. As of now though, the updates will be few and far between. Not for lack of interest, but really lack of inspiration. I’ll keep playing, but not really writing about playing.

This is not a swan song, but who knows.

Been a while

2011-11-21T22:01:00.002-05:00

So its been a bit. Bonus xp weekend, Dung weekend, etc. etc... Got a few levels, got a few capes.

I hate to bring this up, but my absence has had a reason. I've had some terrible months and I hate to say it but I've been diagnosed as being bipolar. Kind of hard to take when you are in your 30s... If I can stress to anyone, its that there are lots of us out there. It does suck, but it does get better.

Back to trying to get back to reality. Fighting.

Prepping for who knows what....

2011-07-18T16:59:00.003-04:00

If history is any indicator, we should probably have another bonus xp weekend in September. I’ve decided to start stockpiling supplies now while there’s a lot of good prices out there. Toadflax seeds are just about 200gp! I thought I was getting a great deal when I found them for under 1k ages ago. I stocked up then, but I’m definitely restocking now.

I’m going to be more diligent about herb runs and managing my kingdom when I get time to play. Also grabbing that free pure ess each day should add up as I’ve been doing a bit of runecrafting recently. I’d love to stockpile my 80 staves that I get each day and save them for when there’s a bonus, but I don’t haven enough cash to do that for too long. Besides, that’s fast enough xp and good money anyway. I’m almost at 97 Crafting so there’s nothing much I can really unlock for that skill.

Again, if history’s any indicator, not only will this happen but I will also be out of town for one reason or another and not able to participate. In that case, I’d just sell my materials when things get pricy and make some cash. Even if it doesn’t happen, having a stock of materials isn’t ever a bad thing, especially if one seed is just 200gp!

Over the last month or so and played a LOT of Soul Wars. I managed 85-90 prayer there before I couldn’t take it any longer. I broke down, sold some stuff and bought bones and worked my way to 95 prayer. Varrock and Fally Diaries completed! I’ve been better at getting Bork on a regular basis too, the double rewards are sweet!

I’m about 40k away from 99 Hitpoints. I just couldn’t keep my eyes open last night to get it done. That xp counter goes painfully slow when you’re watching it intently. Hopefully that will be for tonight or sometime this week, depending on work.

HP & Prayer have always been two of my favorite capes. What can I say, I guess I have a weakness for the white. I kind of wish they didn't change the HP emote though, I thought the old one was the coolest one out of them all.

Still Alive

2011-06-29T00:03:00.002-04:00

I'm still alive. Life is ridiculously busy. I feel like every weekend since 2005 involves me going to a wedding... When I've been in the game all I've been doing is penguins and Soul Wars. So far I've gone 85-90 Prayer. I'm close to 91. It's taken weeks. Soul Wars clan chats are some of the most annoying I've ever been in.

However, 90 Prayer is a huge step in the 90+ quest. I'd love to get 95 for the diaries, but 92 would be great as well. It's just so slow and painful. And no, I don't have 100m to drop on it to make it faster. My bank has hovered around 300k for a long time now. I did manage 97 Attack which got me 134cb. I was pretty stoked on that.

I wish I had better things to report, but Soul Wars isn't really exciting. Slowly chipping away at Prayer levels...

Vengeancing Everything in Sight

2011-05-18T16:12:00.002-04:00

I finally unlocked all of the livid farm spells. It really didn’t seem like a grind to me until the last 4 or so hours. That was probably because I knew I wasn’t going to get any other levels until I was done. Doing all of it I managed 2 farming levels and I’m about 68k from 91, 2 agility levels, a construction level and a magic level and a pretty good chunk out of my next. I think I’m about 300k from 97.

The spell came in pretty handy on a trip to corp, sadly I didn’t have any luck with drops.

I was a little closer to another agility level and something clicked where I finally realized I could access the advanced gnome course by using summer pies. Wow everyone who wrote about it was right, it really is scenic. I actually didn’t feel bored doing it. With the horn its about 1400+xp/lap. The running on the sign thing is actually a lot of fun. I played a little BA to charge my horn and once its full and I buy some more pies, I’m definitely going back there.

Air orbs are pretty low cost now so I bought a ton of them. That combined with getting 2 summoning levels, 90 and 91 pretty much wiped me out cash wise. I’ve been skilling so much lately that I guess its only time to get back into the swing of trips to kill stuff. So summoning knocks out another goal of getting all skills over 90. I’m getting closer. I actually got cb lvl 133 on one of the summoning levels, so that was a bonus. No fireworks for either though, weird.

Dungeoneering 90 might be left off that goal list. I spent a good hour in a large dung with 3 friends the other night. It was pretty much a full map and we had everything open and were just prepping for the boss when I lagged. It couldn’t have been more than a minute or two (I think you have 5 to return to the dungeon) but was kicked out. No experience given whatsoever and when I went to check, I again lost my binds. I thought that was only supposed to happen when the server crashed. Wtf! I’m so sick of spending time training a skill that keeps giving me no xp and taking my stuff from me. I started a small c6 that luckily had a few gorg spots so I made a couple items but then I just left it. It is so frustrating to deal with all that time and effort wasted over and over.

I’m excited to be able to do the lower level summoning effigies, if I ever get them.

Real life is pretty busy the next few days. I won't be on much.

Early Evening of the Dead

2011-05-05T09:06:00.002-04:00

I used up my Hati Paws yesterday. It took maybe 4 hours. It was amazing how quick the xp flew by. My goal was to do it as quick as possible because, like I’ve stated I’m sure countless times, I hate ranging.

My gear:
Void Range Helm
Ammy of Ranging
Ava’s
Elite Void Top
Void Robes
Archer’s Ring
Void Deflector
Hati Paws
Ranger Boots (borrowed)
Chins

I managed to get 88, 89 and 90 Ranged! As well as 98 Hitpoints! When my paws ran out, I was still stocked and a little over 150k til 90 Ranged, so I stayed down there a little longer. My xp counted was at about 1.3m when I was done. I sold my remaining 6k chins and 500 pray pots afterwards. Note that chins are really pretty cheap at the moment if anyone is considering using them.

I went to Ape Atoll to fight the zombies under there. No drops, but fast and easy xp. There were a few near deaths, but I managed to survive even a disconnection. I’d recommend a ring of life if anyone is going to try it, just to be safer.

I can now use Grave Creeper bows which is great. Whenever we’d need to range in a dungeon, someone would give me a bow and I’d always forget to check the type until we were in the boss room and I’m wondering why I can’t equip it… >.< When I get in the mood to go back down there, I can also bind some Prom arrows, which will be pretty sweet as well.

I probably won’t get to play much this weekend. Going to a baseball game, Mother’s Day, Derby day, etc. I’m hoping when things settle down a bit I can finish the Livid Farm. It’s helping me with two of my sub 90 skills, Agility and Farming. Not too long ago I got 90 Mining, now 90 Ranged, got 89 Farming and in the past 2 days I’ve been buying addy bars and using my SC tool stockpile as hammers and doing some Smithing. My plan was to make addy plates, but then I realized I needed 88 to do that. Ah well, not too much of an issue. Kiteshields and legs sell pretty easily. I managed 85, 86 and 87 Smithing and will probably get 88 tonight (hopefully!).

Quatro de Mayo

2011-05-04T10:19:00.003-04:00

It's been a frustrating few weeks. I kept Dungeoneering and just as I was about to kill the boss of a 1+ hr long solo med which would get a level as well as enough tokens to get a CR, the server crashed. Not a problem on my end, but a problem on RS's end. I couldn't log on for over 40 minutes. Not only did I not get any experience or tokens from that time spent, I lost the items I bound. I don't get it! I had them before the dungeon and I should hold on to them, however that is not the case. The only thing I had when I went back into the dungeon was my gorg arrows. I lost my hood and my Prom spear++. Not only did the game let me down by crashing, it stole from me.

After a few hours of blowing off some steam, I sucked it up and got what I was looking for. Needless to say, I'll be taking a break from Dungeoneering for a good amount of time. I also don't understand how Jagex just won't even address the issue. The items were bound and I could even concede if it was maybe a problem on my end, with lag or my computer crashed, but not when their world goes down. Lame.

I used the sword on Mith Dragons and it was pretty sweet. I did a round of... that summoning minigame where you gather shards that I can't think of the name of at the moment, then went on to Waterfiends. I love the sword. If I ever lose it, I'll probably be crushed. I can't imagine going through all that to get it back.

I've been spending a good amount of time at Livid Farm. I think I'm the only one who actually likes it. I've unlocked the first 3 spells and am working on the rest. It got me 95 Magic and 89 Farming. Right now I'm pretty close to 96 Magic and 82 Agility. I'm excited to check out the pouch repair for when I RC. I'd love to be able to Vengeance Others, but that's a little ways off. I'd say I'm about 11 hours into the 35 needed. I did most of that in just a couple days, I'll probably take a little break and then do it in spurts. I'll take all the Agility xp without actually training Agility I can get!

The new capes came out yesterday! I'm not thrilled about the design chosen of the Veteran's Cape (I think the flames at the bottom are tacky, it could have been so much more elegant) but the emote is great! I love being able to stand on a giant Rocky V symbol. I'd actually like it to change over the years as well. Maybe the people who have played 7 years get to stand on a giant VII or X for 10 years. That might make it a little more personal.

Jagex claims it won't tell people their start dates of their accounts. I wonder how people will know when they've played 5 years then... Mod Emilee said to check the holiday items if they weren't sure. That might be an ok gauge, but if anyone's like me, I didn't care about holiday items for the first few years I played. I think the first thing I got was the Grim Reaper Hood, and that was easily after several years of playing.

With the Classic cape, I feel the opposite of the Veteran's Cape. I love how it looks, but I'm not thrilled with the emote. Yeah its a little nostalgic, but meh.

I made all the skill level capes as well. I can wear the 80+ one, but was still able to make the 90+. They look alright. I don't think I'll do much more with them than just put them in my POH though.

I need to use up my Hati Paws! 100% left remaining and only 6 days to go! Look out zombie monkeys, I'm coming to throw small exploding animals in your faces!

Down in a Hole

2011-04-13T16:24:00.002-04:00

I tried doing Dung with strangers (I was really, really bored). Oi! Annoying! It usually ends up with multiple deaths and general annoyance. The best is when someone states there’s a skill door at the ggs, so naturally I’ll tele over to open it. What they conveniently forget to mention is “Oh yeah, there’s also 3 lvl 130 Shades in there with two archers.” Mass confusion on opening doors/entering rooms too, as people jump into rooms they thought they were just unlocking. Out of about 4 dungeon attempts (and countless amounts of time trying to find a team) only one was completed and it took about an hour and a half. -42% for three deaths. One was completely my fault, but two weren’t. The people apologized, but it still sucks. If I try to do this again, I’m just going to keep my head down and do the bare minimum to get by. It seems to be what everyone else does and there’s no reason for me to be killing myself when no one else will.

Clan chat update…. Where even to start? How about how they chose the most obnoxious colors to begin with… Thankfully you can change them on our settings. That bright lime green is just offensive to look at. It’s also not multi-clan friendly. For me, I’m in two clans. One was started with friends years ago and is really just us hanging out with trips and competitions but no real requirements. There’s no public recruiting and potential members are on a buddy system, then finally allowed into CC on their own, but they’re acceptance actually takes a few months. This is really to weed out any personality conflicts and has nothing to do with skills or levels. The other is a lot larger with a different set of rules and monthly requirements and I love it because it keeps me motivated. Now, I have to have friend chat open to our old CC, with our new designed CC being automatically entered. This way, we can talk with everyone, even the recruits and just use the CC, which is accepted members only, for more business like discussions regarding clan matters, voting, etc. Since I’m already registered for that CC (which I need to be, being that I’m one of the higher ups needed for voting and business measures), I have no option regarding joining my other CC. I’m forced to log in as a guest, which has its restrictions and can not carry a rank.

Speaking of restrictions, how about mental ones? 5 levels of chat, all pretty much separated by a single keystroke? People struggle with wc’s constantly with just public, pm and cc. This should create some interesting drama.

I'm also baffled by needing to actually go up to the person in order to add them. Doesn't really make much sense to me as you never had to do that before.

We'll see how it goes. I finally got to see the tree update everyone had been talking about. (I had to come up to the service for the cc) They are beautiful! I love how gigantic they look.

Back to the dung...

Through the roof... Underground...

2011-04-08T16:10:00.000-04:00

I have been doing a lot of Dungeoneering this week. I’ll do it with a friend or two if they’re willing and have floors in common, but I mostly do solos. I’ll rush 1-20 then do a few smalls but mostly mediums. I know its not the most effective, plus I’m dying to get it to 80 and doing it slowly, but I hate relying on others. Also, most people online I know want to start large dungeons at 11pm when I get up for work around 6am. Somethings in the game just take way too long when involving a group of people. 3 rooms in someone dies so you reset, then someone has to leave abruptly, then this and that and I just don’t even want to deal with it when all I can think of is that I’m not going to get any sleep when I was coerced into it to begin with.

I put large dungeons on the level of Armady boss trips. It takes forever to get your kill count, then two other people sign on and want to join, but need help prepping and getting kc.

I know I’ll get responses like “I do larges all the time and it only takes me 30 mins and never had an issue” or whatever. Awesome. I’m stoked for you. Not my experience. Unless I have a giant amount of time to kill or feel the need to be annoyed by strangers, I’ll keep at it my way. Earlier in the week I unlocked the occult floors, which have actually been easier for me. I know I’m jinxng myself, but I like them. I got up to lvl 76 and I’m just shy of lvl 77.

I had been using my ring all wrong. I finally figured it out and charged my gathering up to tier 9. It was an expensive amount of tokens and the reason why I’m spending so much time in dungeons is that I want a CR. It’s alright though, because of a jagex mix up, you can uncharged it once and get your tokens back. Just once though. I’m treating it like I’m just putting them in the bank.

The null thing in the Adventure Log is really annoying. I haven’t come up to the surface enough to check out the Livid Farm thing yet. Vengeance Group sounds like it would be a pretty amazing spell, but it looks like it’ll have a pretty huge time requirement to unlock it. I'm sure I’ll look into it soon. B2P took a long time to unlock, but that was absolutely worth it. VG would be amazing for boss battles. Blessing up to 30 people with Vengeance would destroy almost anything.

Have an amazing weekend!

On my way to the Prom

2011-03-25T11:03:00.003-04:00

No, not the dance.

I've been doing a ton of Mining this week. I got 88, 89 and am about to get to lvl 90. Prom ore and size 9 stars, here I come! I need to work on my smithing though, that's only at 84. Prom ore isn't very useful if I can't do anything with it.

The combination of the penance horn and SC picks have been pretty amazing. I'm getting over 100k xp/hr mining gold at LRC. The horn's about to be empty though. I think when I do some BA runs and when it's refilled I might run some laps and get my agility up a bit.

My over ambitious goal last year was to get every level to 90. It was a motivator more than anything. I did get a lot of my lower skills up. I feel like with some additions to the game, that's actually possible and not that far away. I still don't feel any reason to level up Construction. I wish there was some motivation, but I can't think of anything. My house is exactly the way I want it, I have the higher level storage items to save bankspace because they're tradeable, I have no interest in a guardian or dungeon pet. Spending a ton of cash on a throne doesn't interest me. I use my house to check on stars, recharge my pray, store my stuff, repair my armor, teleport and that's about it. Can anyone think of anything? I'm not big into hosting house parties.

So Survivor kicked off and I'm happy. Lots of Mining, Thieving. Competition might be the motivation that I've been lacking lately.

I've seen a pretty decent exodus of friends from the game lately. A lot have picked up playing LOTRO, which I have checked out. It is a gorgeous game and is entertaining. Runescape will always be the go-to though. I have too much invested in it to really just switch over. Not just the gameplay, but the people that I don't know outside of the game. Besides, its SURVIVOR! I don't have the time to work on anything else!

Things have been hectic in RL, sick grandpop, super busy at work but some fun involved. About 20 of my friends and I heading down the street to watch the home opener of the Philadelphia Union (soccer) for my birthday. Gonna be cold, but should be a lot of fun.

Go Union!

So many things...

2011-03-18T11:31:00.001-04:00

I skipped bxp weekend, but I got home in time to do a quick tree run which got me 88 Farming as well as the Circus, which has me closer to some levels in Mage and Range. After that I did about an hour or so of Runecrafting at Ouriana. That pretty much was the weekend for me.

I had been fooling around with my horn and I finally got around to getting back my Ninja Greegree, which I somehow lost (I think I teleported with a full inventory at some point, not sure how I got a full inv running laps, but every tells me that’s the likely culprit), which was a bit of a pain, but I’m glad I have it now. I got a few Agility levels and it goes fast at over 1kxp/lap.

My buddy showed me how to get the Herblore JuJu Pots from… Herblore Habitat? I think that’s the name. Super fast Hunting experience. Also using the Herblore pots on the herbs to make the Herblore pots = awesome. I made a lot of money selling herbs before the big weekend. Getting about 40 for each run is awesome. I’ve been mainly getting my Herblore xp from cleaning the herbs as well as the statue and giving assists. I’m about 10k from 91, and not as much in the mood to push it to 95 as I was a while ago. The extremes are working just fine.

I got to lvl 5 in all the Barb Assault roles, which really just makes it easier to get on a team when doing it with strangers. I also got to lvl 70 Dungeoneering. The new update is alright, I like that it gives you a screen in the chat box with all the info when you start it. I still have yet to do that with strangers, we’ll see if that happens.

Does anyone even really read the history notes that are dropped at the end of dungeons? I try to, but just getting a paragraph every now and then makes it very difficult to string together. Is there a place where you can pick up and read the ones you have start to finish? I’ve also gotten one or two that was just completely blank with a message ‘its too old to read’ or something along those lines.

Survivor is starting and I’m excited to get some Mining levels out of it. I’ll need to train Smithing at some point. Ore isn’t any good if you can’t do anything with it. I haven’t tried the new Smithing update area yet, anyone know if its any good?

I love the Ring of Wealth update. I always used mine as a good luck charm, even in LS where I know its useless. I was slaying yesterday, Waterfiends, Black and Iron Dragons. It was a little disheartening when it would shine brighter and the drop is 300gp. New task is Dusties, which I actually love. I’m hoping for some luck there. I have about 250 of them.

I just returned from amazing vacations in the Poconos and Key West (where I was during bxp) a few days ago and getting over a cold. March has been, always has been and always will be, super busy for me. The majority of my friends birthdays are in March, as well as my own. I haven’t had a birthday party in years because of how fast the month fills up. I planned mine in early January, which was good because the next week, every weekend is booked up until late April. Weddings, birthdays, life… Throw that on top with a sick grandparent (doing much better!) and a lap top that committed suicide on me, playing time has been limited. I’ve got a new computer though, and am going to actually live in my house for 2 straight weeks instead of being in hotels/motels/holiday inns. Actually, since I’ve been back I’ve been glued to the TV regarding the Japan crisis. I have friends over there who are thankfully fine. The western media regarding the radiation is out of control. We (meaning the USA) are going to be fine. No need to stock up on iodine. Actually doing that is a bad thing, Japan needs them more. Marlaine touched on it briefly on her blog, but its been a constant topic of conversation for me. No looting, no rioting, just trying to make it through it and coming together.

This reminded me of a recent insurance commercial I just watched last night with my roommate. It focused on how people went out of their way to help others. Someone was helping a person pick up papers they dropped, one was holding a door for others, one was stopping a kid from wrecking on his bike due to a runaway innertube from the beach. This shouldn’t be extraordinary behavior people! This is just called being a human being! It’s sad when common courtesy and respect are out the window. I see less and less of it in the RS community as well. I want to have a “Do something awesome for a completely random RS stranger Day.” It doesn’t have to be giving anyone something of value. It can just be something as simple as giving someone a lift to Lunar when they needed it, or showing a new player who’s lost where that super strange city of “Varrock” is located. Don’t really bring it up either, don’t start a competition about who can do the most (actually, would that *really* be a bad thing?), just have that little knowledge to yourself that you helped someone in need out. Negativity spreads like wildfire. You’re rude to a person in the grocery store because someone cut you off on your way to work who was probably pissed because someone cut them off beforehand. I’ve seen it in game. Someone gets scammed then they try to scam someone else, so then they camp and try to PK someone on a TT or something like that. Everyone just needs to chill. Life can be so much easier.

Wow, tangent much? Anyways. Happy St. Patrick’s day and lets go Villanova!

Catching Up

2011-02-18T11:08:00.003-05:00

Where to start since last November? Dragon Defenders, return of the Wildy, free trade, the removal of the censor. So much has changed...

I haven't been missing all of this, I've still consistently been playing RS, I just haven't written anything on it. To be honest, everyone seemed to have pretty heated opinions on the subjects, myself included and I just wanted to sit back a bit.

Also, for a while I really lost my motivation in the game. When all you do is bankstand and chat with friends, and not actually 'play,' it doesn't give you much to write about.

I'll do a little recap:
- Got a few dragon defs a few days after it came out. I keep confusing it for a dragon scim in my bank even to this day. I like it. Was hard to get because of the crowds, but I signed on at an odd time and got a couple for myself

-Free Trade & Wildy. What a sham of a "vote." I fully believe they intended to bring it back regardless and the referendum and vote was really just an advertising ploy. I have no issues with free trade. I would have liked to have them set aside a few safe wildy worlds, but they didn't and what can you do? I've been playing for a while. I remember the pre-GE days and the dangerous wildy, so I just went back into that mindset and I don't really mind it. As with anything, you just deal with it. Prices of things went out of whack a bit. However, they kind of did in the same way when the GE was first created. Certain items tanked in value and recovered, the same thing is happening to those same items, so its kind of predictable. Maybe I'll put my money where my mouth is and see if it plays out the same.

-Removal of the censor. Someone brought up on forums that they thought Jagex would institute a voice chat included with the game. My thought process is that they'd never do that, as there's no way to censor it. However, with the removal of the censor, I really think they are going to institute this. Maybe charge a small additional fee along with the service. I've said I've hated it before, but I've come around to using Skype with the game. It makes things so much easier sometimes. Dungeons and Barb Assault come immediately to mind. Also, the removal of the censor was kind of abrupt. I'm older and I'm not really offended by the language, but for so many parents with younger kids playing the game, it seems off. Yes, there is a filter, but the kid can easily access that. If there were some parental control over an account, it might work better. The argument against this seems to be coming from kids. "In middle school I hear cursing every single day." Good for you (apparently this is something to be bragged about?). That doesn't mean you should. In a heartbeat I would cancel my kid's membership if they were in the 10-16 yr old age range.

Ok, those issues addressed. This is going to be a long post. What can I say, I haven't written in a while, bear with me.

So, after a long time of no motivation, an update actually sparked my activity. A seemingly weird one too. The Hati Wolf. Just seemed like a fun holiday-ish thing to do. The paws give you double xp in cb though. That was all it took. I HATE ranging. I've been at lvl 87 for a while now with not a lot of xp to get 88, but I just haven't done it. I am NOT wasting a chance at double xp on this. Plus my HP lvl is at 97 and could use some help. I'm going to use chins for this and after some discussion, the best way to do it is using the void gear. I never entertained the thought of using PC points for anything other than xp. It seemed like a waste. With the introduction of the Void Deflector, I could use the full gear and the paws. On to PC it was. I got all of the gear after doing it. On to Conquest... You start at 1000, but need either 1250 or 1350 to get the deflector, I forget which and can't be bothered to look it up atm.

The deflector I still need. I suck at conquest. If anyone wants to play a few rigged games, let me know. We can both get it.

Jax brought up the return of Survivor. In my inactivity I lost clan status, so if I'm allowed back, I'll be competing in this. I'm also organizing one with my other friends so if the first falls through, I'll have the other. Either that or its just double motivation.

Prepping for that, I've been playing a ton of non-cb Stealing Creation. This has always been one of my favorite in-game activities. I just love the race to gather, process and bank and see if I can make the hiscore. The cc's can be a little annoying at times, but whatever. Those little inconveniences will be worth it when I cash my points in. I'm currently at about 1300 points now and will try to get a lot more before the start of either.

Then I wondered what else is xp boosting that I need. My barb horn has been empty for some time. I started playing that, and currently I've just been concentrating on that. I did enough to get my horn full. I've never owned a penance torso, but I've always wanted one. A few friends have been on a BA kick and I'll usually only defend when I'm with friends. I can be sort of slow at it, but I can do it pretty competently now. I got my points to get my torso and I'm happy. I probably won't use it much, but its one of those things in the game that I just always wanted. I kept playing and managed to get up to level 4 defender (from lvl 1) with lvl 5's in all three other roles. I had lvl 5 atk for a bit, but have recently gone from lvl 2 healer to 5 and lvl 3 coll to lvl 5. I'm on a kick and I'm running with it. I kind of want all the penance parts and my bankspace is currently hating me because I've been on a collecting spree.

If people are free, I try to do a dung. Got up to lvl 67 which isn't high, but whatever. I actually like rushing floors better than doing the big ones. Anyways, that's what I've been up to. I hope you all have been well.

Motions

2010-11-24T11:59:00.001-05:00

I’d like to thank everyone for their kind words and suggestions on my last post. Even just people and my friends I could talk to about random things in game helps so much. It was really hard playing during the first couple of days to be honest. Calling our one friend really helped because it was just good to talk to someone who could just relate was an amazing feeling.

We had a little memorial service for her which, with almost every large gathering in rs, was well intentioned but worked out kind of awkwardly. Her son logged on so he could see how many people cared, but I don’t think he fully understood it, and that I get. Let alone dealing with the loss himself, it’s a hard thing to look in on people trying to say nice things on an online game while a bunch of others are really just there as spectators or showed up out of curiosity.

Either way its just hard seeing that name on your friends list that you know is never going to log on again. I wish there were some way to close off her cc though, it seems to be being used by some pretty disrespectful people. People go to gravesites to visit and talk to their friends and family. I hate to make the analogy but the clan chat is kind of like that. I can’t get to the other side of the country whenever I want to talk to her. I was cleaning out my emails when I came across one from her not too long ago asking if I could teach her how to do Bork since the Chaos Tunnels were confusing. I think I made it a point to go everyday until she knew the route, then she would take me along showing me that she knew them so well. Fun stuff.

I’ve just been keeping myself distracted really. I’ve been doing a lot of Corp masses because they’re pretty fun and you don’t really think about much other than surviving there. Survival therapy I guess you can call it. I’ve seen some Spectral drops, I’m hoping I just go enough to get something awesome. You really begin to realize how rare certain drops are if you just spend day after day killing hundreds of the same thing. I managed to level my Defense up to 93 which I’m excited about. I always like it when I’m harder to hit.

I got 85 Prayer as well since the last post. That way I could make my Blessed Spirit Shield, mainly because I was curious about it. So far I’m liking it, but man, just getting from 84-85 shows why I haven’t done Prayer more often. I tried to go back to Soul Wars, it seems to be the free way to train it while getting other xp as well, but those games get pretty annoying sometimes. To see how it’d work out I actually switched to Ancients and took my Magic Essence pots (which aren’t tradeable and I gotta use them sometime) and tried using Ice Barrage for the first time. It’s not as fun as it looks.

Not many other things have been going on lately. Is it me or hasn’t there been an update in a while? Also, I’m guessing no Thanksgiving event this year? I kind of liked the turkey ones. I know it’s really only a North American holiday, but we’ve had them before. Ah well…

I’ve been struggling with bank space lately. All these clue rewards stack up (h3 plate, h2 helm, h4 legs) but not being able to put them in our POH without the complete sets is pretty lame. At least there’s the option now of not having everything bombard you when you open it. I opened my box for the first time since seeing everyone get destroyed with inv and bank spots and was pleased to see the option of that not happening. Also, I realized I only have 2 things in there that would have been affected, so it wouldn’t have been that much of a deal after all anyway.

My motivation for leveling skills has really just been take whatever’s closest to leveling and run with it. Dungeoneering aside, of course. It’s kind of at that point to where nothing really seems close to a level. My Slayer task is daggies so I went with a friend to the Daganoth Kings. Good lord that place is confusing to get to. On top of that I didn’t really like killing them too much. Them and TDs, I just can’t get into. It was an experience though, like trying a food you don’t like every couple of years to see if your tastes have changed.

Well, I guess that’s enough rambling for now. I hope everyone has a safe and good Thanksgiving for all those who celebrate it. For those that don’t, I hope you have a great week as well.

Devestated

2010-11-11T09:41:00.000-05:00

I woke up at 3am. I was sick. My throat was dry, the room spun and I could feel my heartbeat in the pit of my stomach. I got up to get some water and turn on the fan and open the window. I had 2 beers about 6 hours prior, so that wasn’t the reason. It must have been the burger I ate around 9pm causing havoc in my stomach. I couldn’t go back to sleep so I opened my lap top.

My one friend had given her facebook password to her daughter. She was going in for brain surgery because they detected an aneurysm a month or two ago. Right as I open it I see the update. She didn’t make it.

This is not someone I knew in person, but rather in game and then later on myspace and facebook. When I first started playing, I didn’t do much to make friends. It was just a game to screw around on. When I left and then I eventually came back, I wanted to take it a little more serious. I decided to train whatever my highest skill was. It was fishing, I think it was in the 30s. I spent hours fishing in Catherby as well as other various places. I’d take part in conversations, but never bothered to remember anyone’s name being that it was always a different group of people. I was so excited when I finally had the level to enter the Fishing Guild. It was here where I really met my first few friends in Runescape.

I have acquaintances and good friends in Runescape, however the first 5 people I ever really met hold a very special place in my heart. I couldn’t believe that people were spending hours and hours fishing, just like me and for some reason, stuck to the same home world of 26. I had never played any sort of MMORPG before and didn’t even know that people had ‘friends’ in them. This was over 5 years ago. I got friendly with them and we’d chat daily as we slowly chipped away at the fishing xp. As friends grew and moved on, some quitting, some just not on anymore or some who just moved to timezones where we never see each other, we all still managed to stay in contact. She was one of those friends.

I immediately logged on to see if any mutual friends were online, but there were not. I tried to go back to sleep but I really just laid restless until my alarm went off. I checked again before work but still none online. Another one of those 5 friends was very close to her, even talking to her on the phone regularly. She has to be devastated and I wish I could talk to her.

She’d even have her daughters come online (she leaves behind a long term boyfriend and 4 kids) to say hello to us. I remember doing that for three years. They’d eventually get their capes before me. I got mine and still fished, but got more interested in doing other things. We didn’t see each other on a daily basis in the game anymore, but we’d still PM and chat that way. She continued to fish with another one of those core friends, both pretty much earning their fishing cape about 4 times over. She’d PM me saying she’s so impressed with the way I’ve been knocking out my total levels, I’d gush equally about how much fishing xp she has and how high ranked she is in it.

It’s amusing, she got tired of having a couple adult beverages and then the next day realizing that she’d sold all her armor, or bought something ridiculous. To combat that, she started a new account that whenever that account was online, it’d mean she was a little tipsy. We’d laugh and joke about that for a long time.

Her life wasn’t the easiest. She struggled a lot with money, health and other personal issues. She always seemed positive though and could always laugh things off. A perfect example of this is just the other day. I had known all of what was going on, she didn’t feel the need to hide much and we were so close she’d tell me pretty much everything and I would to her. I had my dates wrong and saw on her facebook that she was about to leave for the hospital to get this surgery done. I was in game at the time and saw her log out. She logged right back in and I was quick to grab her attention. She said she was leaving in about 10 mins to drive to the brain surgery center a ways away from where she lived. I told her I cared about her and assured her that everything was going to be fine. We joked about when they had her brain open to make it like the Matrix and make her learn different languages and Kung Fu. I could tell she was nervous, but the joking made her relax. She said thanks and that she’ll see me in two weeks or so when she gets back.

That’s the last conversation I’ll ever have with her.

My thoughts are with her family and friends. I’ll try to keep my shit together and get through this work day, which I am doing a terrible job of trying to do. I’ll talk to friends and family as if everything is fine. I’ll smile to coworkers but I am destroyed inside. They won’t understand. Maybe that’s why I’m writing this. It’s not just “someone on the internet.” It’s a beloved friend, who knew me more than a lot of the people that I know in real life. It’s amazing that someone on the other side of the country, who’s voice I’ve never even heard would have such an impact in my life. If you’re reading this blog it means you play the game. It also means that you get it. You get the connections that are made over time. Don’t take them for granted.

I’ll miss you Ven. You’ll always have a place in my heart.

Get A Clue

2010-11-08T18:57:00.004-05:00

92 Defence, which got me up to lvl 131 cb! Also got 87 Slayer! I spent the weekend knocking out slay tasks. Killing tons of nechs, hellhounds, abby demons, abby spectres, greaters, blue drags, etc, also leads to tons of something else:

Yeah, that's a lot of clues. Biggest item I received was Bandos page 3, but I know have a bunch of teleports to random places. The lumberyard teles came in handy while doing the clues that lead you there.

As you can see I got a court summons for the sandwich lady. It's the first one I've ever gotten. I went over to the court and pled her case and got her off the hook. The very next clue I got I received another summons! I thought this was awesome and head back to the court house to see who else I could get out of being falsely accused. Bummer, you have to wait 2 weeks to do it again... Ah well, at least I already have it.

I noticed I was getting close to a task where I was going to receive a slay points bonus. I went over to Lapalok for a task. Bloodveld! Hadn't had those in forever. I grabbed my cannon and went to kill the mutated ones and it was great xp and super fast. I completed the task and I got the "Get 75 points from Lapalok for completing a task" crossed off the elite Karamja diary list.

Potpourri

2010-11-06T17:59:00.001-04:00

I finally did the Halloween event (on 11/1, I’m happy I didn’t miss it!) and it was pretty good. I had some trouble finding all the spiders but it didn’t take long to get them on their matching tiles. I had heard this was super hard for some people. I think I really just lucked out, half were correct before I even realize what was going on. The talking to the dead musician guy was probably the worst part of it for me. I actually pulled up a guide because that kind of thing frustrates the hell out of me. However, when I looked at it, I realized I was on the last choice anyways.

I think the bone brooch is pretty cool and the emote is fun. Overall I liked it. I like how it incorporated people from previous Halloween events. I liked the Poe references and I had to look it up to confirm it, but there was a Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey reference. I got worried there that I was reading Bill & Ted’s into it, but its there! Whenever I see the grim reaper I think about challenging him to battleship and twister so I already had that goin on in the back of my head. Also, I don’t know where Bill S. Preston gets off adding Esq. to the end of his name. There’s no way that kid went to law school and passed the bar. Also, they’re coming out with a third one soon, which... will be interesting.

Yesterday I got to 93 Crafting, which I’m pretty happy about. Staves and the occasional assist is really the only way I train it. I had about 800 staves laying around so I bit the bullet and bought the air orbs to make them. They’re super expensive now, but they bought at mid instantly. I go in and out of my DIY phases and I just didn’t have it in me to make the orbs from scratch. Part of that has to do with not visiting Arnheim in Catherby for my seaweed. I just don’t really think of it because I have enough pineapples to last me forever.

The cash supply was running a little low, so I went to my favorite alching spot and took care of those. The best place to alch is the Skavid caves at Gu’Tanoth while collecting nightshade. It’s a second for herblore and its respawn rate is a little slow, not to mention it being untradeable. You just need a lightsource and the Skavid map. I wear my Seer’s 3 headband but you can also use the mining helmet to save an inventory spot. I wear my dueling ring so I can bank pretty quickly at Castle Wars. You also need to wear any kind of gloves or else it’ll hurt you when you pick it up.

It never ceases to amaze me how much of Runescape is based upon actual things. There really is belladonna and nightshade and it actually is a toxic plant. I’ve touched on this before, but the amount of real life knowledge you gain while playing a fantasy game is astounding. I always just assumed about 10% of it was real, while the rest is all just imaginary.

Do you know that when Jagex said that they were going to find a use for Ecto-Tokens, that was in 2008. It’s been 2 years and they still haven’t touched on it. They can’t think of anything to do with them? Really? I guess they have better things to do, but they just keep piling up. What would you want them to do with them? Have any ideas? New outfits? They stated originally that they’d be required for a pet, but something with the ex-ex-parrot got it askew. Which reminds me, I should get one of those… Spending 25 or whatever every, say, 4th week because there’s a penguin on braindeath doesn’t exactly deplete the pile. We already have ghostly robes, so that just seems redundant. I wouldn’t want to trade them in for xp being that the ecto place already gives the best pray xp you can get.

With two months left in the year and motivation at a pretty low state, I have to admit I don’t think I’ll make my goal of 90+ (Dungeoneering aside). I’m ok with that. I really wish I posted a list of my skills last January to see how far I’ve come. That’s something to remember for this year. It was a lofty goal, but I’m ok with not achieving it. It was something to reach for and I’ve done a lot in these 10 months. Training some skills that were already over 90 took some time away from leveling the lower ones. I got my Woodcutting cape which I never thought would happen. I brought Thieving up from one of my lowest, most hated levels to one of my higher ones. I got my Strength cape, have been working on Attack, etc.

I just looked back through this blog and my first post of the new year mentioned that I had just lost to Jad 4 times. Things don’t seem to change much I guess. I also noticed that it’s almost been a year since I had the idea of all the RS bloggers to kind of have a get together. It didn’t go exactly as I had thought it would, but it was a lot of fun to get to see everyone in game that I read about on an almost daily basis. Would anyone be interested in doing this again? I think it could be fun. Make it pretty informal, like a house party or meet in a tavern somewhere. Actually, maybe a F2P place would be better since some don’t have memberships. Falador pub? We can stack up on Dwarf Stouts and Wizard Mind Bombs when we’re there. Let me know your thoughts. I’ll organize something if people are interested. And I promise this year I’ll make it at a better time for the ones on the other side of the Atlantic.

Jax’s blog must have me thinking about goals. Congrats to her on her 4th complete year of playing and just plowing through levels. I’ve been playing years longer and haven’t accomplished nearly as much.

Sweetness

2010-11-01T10:26:00.000-04:00

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. It hasn’t been a while since I’ve written though. The amounts of posts that I never put up could fill volumes. It’s kind of ridiculous, but sometimes I just get to the end of writing something, realize I hate it and then just scrap it.

I’ve been killing a lot of mith dragons lately. I’ve grown to like it a lot. Also getting effigies and my first ever elite clue help. I got a dragon platebody ornament kit. Looking at the price it was something like 10M. Everyone told me the street price was much higher and not to sell it on GE. Which is good if you have lots of junk. I don’t. Heck, I don’t even pay attention to what even classifies as ‘junk’ anymore. I just cleared a bunch of useless crap out of my bank and sold to a guy for something like 15M. He promptly used it on his armor, which I was relieved. If he took it to resell I would have thought I was getting the short end of the deal. At least he used it and ran off to show his friends. At the end of the day, even if it is worth more, it’s a free 10M for me and some new bank space.

I like the elite clues. I really like the rune rope puzzle things. The trick is to just pick out two of the paths, focus on them. Move one 17 times (how many runes are on it), if the overlapping spots don’t all match, move the other path 1, then move the original path 17 times again. Repeat until you have all overlapping spots green. Once you have that, simply move the third path until its all unlocked. Viola!

I was lagging so I decided to skip mith drags for a bit and I went to train some attack at abby demons. Whip drop! Sweet!

It’s kind of scary, and I thought it was always luck, but I’ve actually gotten pretty good at the party room. Now, what you get is random, but before I was just spam clicking whenever I saw a balloon. If you time it right, your odds are a lot better. In the last 5 party room drops I’ve been in, I’ve received at least one item. I got 2 things twice (18 prayer pots (4) and… something else, it totaled over 250k), 300k cash and some other fun things like 2k coal, etc.

I haven’t done the Halloween event yet, I meant to do it yesterday. From what I’ve read, it looks pretty interesting. I like seeing people just collapse into a pile of bones as well. I like novel emotes like that.

I’ve held off on posting this because I really wanted to end it by showing you my new firecape, however that hit a bit of a snag. During last week, I think it was Wednesday, I was assigned Jad by Kuradel. I went 3 straight times, losing to Jad each one. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t my assignment any more, it was a matter of principle. Kuradel assigned me Jad again yesterday. Again, got through all the waves with no problem. Again, Jad whacks a 90+ hit on me and I can’t bounce back. I can usually get to the healers, but yesterday the fight was pretty shortlived. Much respect to anyone with a firecape. This week 0-4 vs Jad. Overall 0-17. I think I just acquired my frustration skill cape.

I managed to get 94 Attack though this weekend, so that’s a plus.

October!

2010-10-09T10:49:00.002-04:00

I’ve taken to doing assists just when I see them. There’s far too many people offering 91 Herblore and 95 Crafting in world 117 to make it worth my while to do it everyday. Once I get those up higher and can offer what’s really in demand, I’ll go back. For now, I’ll take the bonus of just seeing people ask for it while I’m in the GE or Edge bank. Standing for an hour offering something 5 other people are offering drives me a little crazy.

My friend set up this gi-normous checklist of things to do in game, each with a set point value. It’s like a giant scavenger hunt. There’s probably over 100 items on the list ranging from “Make and fire every kind of bow you can up to your fletching level” to “Beat Jad.” Her and another friend decided we should all go to KBD and watch each other’s backs for 2 items on the list. “Solo KBD” and “Beat KBD without antifire.” I’ve never solo’d KBD before, at least not that I remember. I certainly never thought to fight him without antifire, on purpose.

Let me tell you, ALWAYS bring antifire. I felt like one of those kids on a youtube video, where they set something up and you just know its going to go horribly wrong, but they do it anyway. Luckily, I didn’t die, but constant hard hits had me down to 073 lp once (I have hatred of rings of life), even while spam clicking food. I killed it, but NEVER EVER do that. At least my friends were right there ready to bless on the other side of the lever. After that I banked, restocked, sipped my mega antifire pot and stood ready to bless while they did the same thing. Everyone made it safe, thankfully. Then, since the list states that every item on it must be done on its own (ie, can’t combine the two tasks in one kill), we took turns soloing with antifire which was much easier. Maybe I should have done it that way first. It was an interesting way to go about my first solo kill of it. All my other experiences were with a group where you barely need anti and rarely ever even get hit.

I've been getting some levels here and there. The last three were 89 Fletching, 87 Farming and 58 Dungoneering (tears). A few steps closer to the year end goal of 90+, but its going to take some serious buckling down and doing things I hate to get it. 80 hunting and 78 Agility seem like they’d take forever to get there, just because of my sheer aversion to them. 90 RC would mean roughly 300,000 Blood Runes. 10,500 trips to the abyss? 3 months? Ok maybe not. Ugh, maybe I’ll have to break down and do Ouriana, it’s a shame I hate being on Lunar. I hate not being able to alch.

I have to do the new quest, maybe I’ll tackle that tonight. Apparently you can upgrade your void armor. If I ever had void armor, that’d be awesome. I could never justify using it on anything aside from XP. However, maybe I’ll look into it if I’m going to be training my range for at least 3 more levels (currently 87).

Prayer at 83 is going to be a pain as well. Well, not so much a pain as it is just really freaking expensive. It’s either that or completely time consuming at Soul Wars.

I still haven’t been into a dungeon in a while. There’s been some large ones scheduled among my friends, but it always seems to be when I’m busy or as I’m falling asleep. I guess I should just do them myself because now that I think about, the ones I need are the ones most people rush through because of the higher levels. I have the level to do some higher floors, the issue is actually unlocking them. User error.

So much to do! I still need to get my ninja greegree back! I have no idea how I lost that thing. It’s not like its something I’d take to do anything else but agility.

This blog is actually going to be posted, unlike my last… 20 which have fallen to the wayside. You should see the blog graveyard. For everyone I post, I probably write about 15.

Kick, Push, Coast

2010-09-18T12:38:00.007-04:00

Got a few things accomplished recently.

I can finally hunt C5S's!

And do other hunting-things!

Shortly after, I ran into my first dragon imp and it gave me 52 dragon bones. Sweet! It sounds weird, but 80 hunting is more important to me than my next achievement, because I hate that hunting skill so much. I just want to be able to get imps and use it in SC.

The next one is pretty sweet though:

Stoked on that. It kind of just snuck up on me while I read/watched movies/did paperwork, etc. Now I need to find a new skill while I do those. Now that fishing and wc are out of the way, I'm not sure what the replacement will be.

I found a bit of motivation hidden somewhere in my sarcasm-laden heart and felt it was time to get back what I earned:

I finished Love Story, Quiet Swarm, Void Dance and finally Elemental Workshop 3 to get my questcape back. EW3 is ridiculous, even with a guide.

I've been lagging like crazy ever since the Z-Buffering update. I'm not sure why. I always play with the small screen, min detail and my task manager says java hovers around 80%. Any tips?

Also, this taken without permission, but if Avicile hadn't mentioned her dad's screen name a few times in her blog, I would have sworn this would be him:

Post Game Report

2010-09-12T17:51:00.003-04:00

Did they up the drop rate for god bird egg nests? Ravens too? I've recently had 2 raven's eggs from my kingdom, where for about 3 years I've never obtained one from there. I'm getting tons of eggs while whacking away at ivy.

I've suggested on rsof that they do something with these eggs. They're not tradeable, after you have a full grown bird of all 4, there's really no point. Let us trade them in for something, shards or small amounts of summon xp, or anything really is better than nothing.

I got 92 Magic the other day. That's an interesting level. Blood barrage and Heal other? "I can pummel you but I'll help you back up?" That got me to 2200. I love the round numbers!

98 Woodcutting, spending weeks and weeks in hotels with terrible internet connections has me doing mundane things and not doing things like Corp or GWD which I love. Anything's better than bankstanding I guess.

The Good, The Banned and The Ugly

2010-09-08T16:27:00.000-04:00

I toyed around with the new elite diaries a bit. I have to say it’s a little annoying concerning certain aspects of it. I made a few admiral pies and it still wasn’t registering. It wasn’t counting it because I was using the barbarian method to get the tuna. For some reason, that matters? Or I was standing too far away while making my magic long bow. (Making it next to where the magic trees are actually located doesn’t count? Lame.) Stupid, trivial things like that kind of take the fun out of it.

The rewards look pretty decent. I’m always up for more battlestaves, but it’ll be a while before I get even close to the prayer levels. I might have to go back and start playing Soul Wars again.

I’m close to a few levels and even closer to 2200 total. I’m under 100k xp from a Magic and Farming levels I think. Those should put me at that nice round number milestone. I’m surprised that all the elite diaries were released at once. I thought they’d milk a few weeks out of it.

I realized I got pushed waayyy back in hiscores because I missed the BXPW. Kind of sucks, but I guess I should have expected it. I just have to get back at it again. 4 months left in 2010 and I’m still trying to get my goal of 90+ by the end of the year. (Dungeoneering not included) Hunting and Agility are killing me though. I don’t even have them to 80 yet (Hunting is about 100kxp away from 80). Everytime I hunt it feels like I did it for 4 hours, but really its only about 20 mins.

I need 10 RC levels (well 11 because why stop at 90 when you’re that close to 91?) but I’m oddly ok with that. There’s something about running in and out of the abyss over and over that’s kind of calming. It’s weird, but I really don’t mind it. I’m not a big fan of the ZMI running, but maybe I’ll give that a shot for a bit.

A Few GP More

2010-09-07T14:41:00.003-04:00

Bonus xp weekend has come and gone. I managed 3 tree runs, the last of which I had no payments for fruit trees, so 3 of my palms died. I also did the circus. 86 Farming and very close to 87 Farming.

Other than that, I had an absolutely amazing vacation where I completely fell in love with the west coast. I have to say, living with the east coast mentality, it being ingrained in my mindset since I was a baby (lvl 3), the negativity, sarcasm and aggression which is in every bone in my body and love it so, maybe we have it wrong?

What to do on Runescape...? The elite diaries are out, I think I can do the Lumby hard and Seer's elite. I'm fine with all the requirements, just not the prayer. That irks me a little bit. Not because I don't have it (I'll level my prayer eventually), its just that I wished it was a little more varied. I also feel pretty bad for the people who can't defeat Jad due to lag issues. I can't beat him because of user defect, but lag is a different issue.

While doing the Seer's I had to ask the fisherpersons of catherby where the salmon was. What I love about the RS community is that regardless of how high your level is, there's probably a lvl 50 out there that can help you out with advice. Provided they don't live on the east coast, of course.

A Fistful of GP

2010-08-23T13:51:00.001-04:00

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.

Part square, part drape.

2010-08-17T19:38:00.004-04:00

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.

No posts?

2010-08-02T09:51:00.001-04:00

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.

Sitting in the waiting room ahhhaa...

2010-07-16T11:29:00.004-04:00

"I am a patient boy... I wait, I wait, I wait..." for my Con rocks... "Be-cause I can't get up..."

Now that Mining week is over for the Jagex Cup, I’ve had a little time to sit back and relax. I went from 85-87 Mining during the number of sessions I had down in the Living Rock Caverns.

Mining and banking gold ore is great xp and brings in a decent amount of cash (or smithing xp if you use the ores yourself), but in order to get the most xp out of the hour long sessions, it actually cost a good bit of money. Sounds weird right? A resource skill actually costing money…

I averaged around 65k/hr (62k/hr on the ones where you get a random) using a D-Pick and Lava Titan. I’d love to figure out how much xp I’d get using the Varrock 3 or Stealing Creation pick, which weren’t legal for the Jagex Cup. Since for the hour long sessions, the majority of your xp had to be in that particular skill, low alching the ore was the way to go. Mining a gold ore is 65xp, the same amount as casting the high alch spell, which would have then nullified the session. By low alching the ore you only gain 31xp (or is it 33? Whatever, its low 30s) meaning the majority of your xp is the mining. This cost about 250k gp/session in using the nats, since the gold ore only alchs for 60gp. I know, what a waste of ore, but come on, this is competition!

Next week starts the 2hour Fishing/Cooking combined sessions where you’re not allowed to bank your resources before cooking them. 2 hours is a little long of a requirement, they should have stuck with the 1hr sessions. Also, I’d love for some sort of update regarding the competition in general. What do they have down for my average xp/hr and does it match up with what I recorded? Were all of my sessions allowed? Just a simple indication of where the clan stands in the overall ranks would be nice. They seem to be really lacking in that aspect. It does change the way you look at it. I thought 65k/hr is really good, however if I find out there’s a clan that’s pulling 90k/hr and is around the same skill level, something in my method needs to be recalculated.

On to Fishing and Cooking I guess, two skill I don’t need xp in, but I always like Fishing, so it doesn’t really matter to me. I can’t imagine my rage when I log about 1:55 session and my internet’s going to crap out on me nullifying the entire thing. With Mining I was at least leveling.

Sold my d-pick, stars and sc pick’s will be alright for now on. With climbing boots getting their value re-adjusted, jester boots are the way to go if you want a cheap shoe with good stats at Corp Beast.

I think I’m going to work on Herblore a bit this weekend. I want overloads and I have some cash laying around. I won’t get close to 96, but might as well put that money to work. Making Harrlander Tar works well and usually sells pretty quick. It just takes a bit for the swamp tar to initially buy.

Still no splits at corp, gotta keep trying. One day that “7-7-7” jackpot green line will appear. Other than that, its just fun to kill.

Killed Bork, a big ork.

2010-07-05T13:07:00.003-04:00

I haven't had too many things to write about recently. I received about 3 effigys (effigies?) as drops and I love them. I like the idea of helping others out with them as well. My 2010 goal is everything except Dungeoneering 90+, now there's a reason behind it. It's great xp and I think it gets more people to use the assist system.

The Jagex Cup is up and running and I'm mining as hard as I can. I find W77 concentrated gold to be the best way to go. I sold my chins and bought a dragon pick to help it go along. I've been tweaking my outfit to stop from getting killed by the living rock creatures. For now I'm going with infinity boots, bandos tassets, arma top, obby shield and gold helmet. I wear my gold helmet when I'm serious about gold :P I've also taken to wearing it while smithing.

I've been gathering obby charms for some cheap summoning seconds. I got 2 of my effigys from them.

Other than that, just been keeping current with Bork and staves. Got to witness Lepage getting his 99 Agility so congrats to him! Got to hang out with Jax and Avicile and that's always fun.

Even ran a few dungeons with Jax and some other friends and saw how they do things. I only made it through about 3 dungeons before I almost fell asleep at the keyboard, but I got a couple levels out of it which was awesome.

Did a large dungeon with a few other friends, they're just too much for me I think. It just takes forever. The xp is great, its just a little too much for my attention span.

Other than that, the World Cup and Tour De France have me distracted a bit. I'm ok with that.

Gathering, Definitely Not Hunting

2010-06-21T17:21:00.001-04:00

I’ve been hoarding a bit recently. Mostly collecting items and not using them right away. It’s a combination of reasons to be honest. Partly, talk of another xp weekend is all over the forums. I have a feeling that this one will be a lot different so I’m not giving it much thought at the moment. I still think it might only deal with Daemonheim and therefore have nothing to do with the ‘outside world.’ The other is the Jagex Cup.

The Jagex Cup is something that came out last year, somewhat unexpectedly. It was announced on forums, but not on the main page. It’s basically a clan tournament where clans send a number of members to compete in combat and skilling competitions. I’m not much for PvP, but as a numbers cruncher kind of guy, I’ve been dying to participate on the skilling side of it. I didn’t have a chance to get a team together last year to participate and that actually bothered me a bit. I thought it was going to be a lot of fun, but a lot of friends seemed uninterested. It’s always disappointing when you’re looking forward to something, have a full friends list and can’t pull 5 people together to do something that doesn’t even require you to be online at the same time.

I know from reading about it that the cup had its number of flaws last time. However, my thoughts on pretty much everything (new phones, computers, televisions, etc), is that the first generation of anything is going to be flawed.

The skill is randomly drawn and announced for everyone to work on. This is where the hoarding comes in. Crafting? Sweet, I’ve been getting my staves daily but not making them. They’ve just been stockpiling. Summoning? Yeah, right. But “just in case” I’ve been making sure to do Bork daily as well as keeping up with Familiarisation. I wandered upon an obelisk last night in Hero’s Guild as I was charging glories. As soon as my time’s up I talk the guy into triple charms and head right for Waterfiends. When I actively seek an obelisk I make sure my inv and gear are already in place, but this was just random. (I also like to save charms for Summoning until I know I have enough for the level I want anyway, so that’s not a big deal.) Herblore? That’s alright, I’ve been doing herb runs every hour like a maniac.

To be honest, I’d love to see it be a resource skill like Woodcutting or Runecrafting.

I just go through phases as well. I seem to be in my ‘gathering’ phase at the moment.

I went to Abby Demons to try and get an effigy, 7 Bunyips later and I still haven’t gotten one. Or a whip, for that matter, but I can’t complain about that, I’ve had I think more than my share of those. I managed to get a decent amount of crimson charms and 92 Attack.

I also stocked up on gold ore so that getting my Smithing rocks would be a little easier. I managed to get to 85 Mining. Sweet! I can now mine rune! There weren’t any open/active ores and it was late so I still haven’t mined my first runite ore yet, but I will tonight.

I bought a TON of chins awhile back, managed to get 87 Ranged. I can not stand Range. I was at monkey skeletons and getting pretty decent xp (200xp up to even 400xp per chin, usually around the 320 area) but oh my god I want to rip my eyes out it is so boring. I tried switching it up and doing Nechrayls and Mummies because of their drops but its still painful. I like whacking stuff with my sword. I’ll try to do a little here and there, maybe in between farm runs, but if chin prices go up, I’ll gladly sell them back. I still want it to be at least 90 before the end of the year and I want to be better at it for Arma trips and Jad, its just one of those skills I’m not a big fan of.

I’m all out of Stealing Creation points & tools and my BA horn is now completely empty. There never seems to be enough hours in the day…

It’s the first day of summer. It’s also International Go Skateboarding Day. Get your board or borrow a board and go ride it! I’ll lend you my spare if you need it.

Neighbors!

2010-06-14T19:18:00.004-04:00

I was bored at work and reading Avicile's blog (which frequently saves me from boredom at work, thank you for that!) and I saw she wrote about checking her Agility lvl on hiscores and how her and Jax were on the same page.

I found that pretty amusing. Things like that always intrigue me. It reminds me of when I lived in Manhattan and that in a city of about 10 million people, I'd randomly come across someone I went to high school with walking down the street. The odds are pretty astronomical, but despite that, it still happens.

I wondered if I was close to anyone. I popped on, checked out overall and look what I find:

Hi Vaskor! And only two spots apart too! That's crazy!

Another xp weekend?

2010-06-13T20:25:00.003-04:00

Mod Emilee confirmed it on RSOF that there will be more bonus xp weekends. No word yet of dates, time frames, or even how its going to be handled.

The last one had a lot of issues. The multiplier was wrong, announcing it a few weeks in advance caused the GE to go insane with herb and summoning second prices going through the roof. A lot of basic things were incredibly hard to get a hold of.

When this happens again, I think it'll go down a lot differently than last time. I've been thinking that they might just spring it on us. "BONUSXPWEEKENDGO!" In case, be constantly prepared. This would fight against all the GE price jacking which happened last time.

In thinking a little more about it, I came up with something new. What if bonus xp weekend was only 2x xp in Demonheim? Pretty much every skill is present there (Slayer?), everything is completely free, there's no cornering the market on seconds. On top of all that, its a great way to promote the new skill.

I also think this would even satisfy the ones who are against bonus xp weekends in general. There's so storing up and blowing through levels, instead its dragging every single resource out of every single dungeon. Making training Dung a little bit longer, but only a slight adjustment to other skills xp.

If it goes down like that, you heard it here first :)

What do you think?

Sweetness

2010-06-11T19:52:00.008-04:00

Finally got a split at Corporeal Beast. However, it wasn't the big one. Still though, my first Elixir split.

Some day those will be the really big numbers :)

I've grown to love Corp trips. You just need about 7 people, patience to world hop and you really risk a bare minimum if you gear up correctly. I think my risked wealth is around 70k. You can obviously go more expensive, but why bother if you don't have to?

Anyways, been getting my rocks again. I stopped by the fishing guild to use their bank and I noticed the Flinger guy outside. I hadn't done it in a while, so I pop in and there's 1 min to start. It took me a bit to get the combos worked out, I haven't done it in a long time. There's no way I'd be making the podium.

That's when I noticed something weird when I joined...

I was the only one there.

This couldn't be right, they expanded the amount of places the flinger guy hangs out at. On top of that, W39 is usually packed. But then it started, with just me. It was some sort of eerie post-apocalyptic version of the mini game.

I did alright:

Yes, yes I know, only one medal. Like I said, its been a while.

Anyways, I got to know what being on the top of the podium felt like. Kind of unfulfilling if there's no one to look out up. Or that there ever was a doubt of you winning to begin with.

I'm under 100k to a number of levels, so I should get those this weekend.

Congrats to the Blackhawks! Hated to see it, but great job. Now onto the World Cup!

And finally a plea, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE realize that I live in the USA, where the World Cup games are on in the AM and middle of the day. Please don't post any world cup spoilers on here, I'm recording the games until I get home from work to watch them. I'm trying to avoid all avenues of hearing about them until I watch. I don't care about any other sites, but I get these comments emailed to me. I'll love ya for it (not that I don't already!) Thanks!

Just saying...

2010-06-08T23:34:00.001-04:00

Somtimes people say it better in names than others.

Whoever that guy is, his mind is in the right place.

Blister

2010-05-31T12:18:00.005-04:00

Vaskor's blog recently touched on the size of Gielinor and for how big it is, the amount of teleports makes it seem small.

It got me thinking, I wanted to see how big it was myself. I remember my first day of members (wayyy long ago, 5 years?) I passed through those taverly gates and just ran for what seemed ever. Hill Giants? What the heck are those?? :P

I thought I'd time it to see how long it takes from one end of the map to the other. I figured I'd start at Scarabites and then the destination was up in the air. After a few map consults, I figured the best was to go diagonal and end up at the northwest corner of Piscatoris. That incorporates a little more. Lletya is just a straight shot west and to be honest, I hate walking through that area.

I thought this would be a lot more interesting than it turned out to be. I thought I'd maybe stumble across a star, and evil tree, maybe a penguin, and interesting imp or two, at the very least some interesting conversations. Maybe its an off day, but I came across none of those. I tried talking to people I'd come across, but no responses.

Anyways, how long does it take? Keep in mind, I walked, didn't run. The result:

In other news, got eliminated from Survivor the week before the final week. That's ok. Got some amazing levels out of it. Went from 77-91 Thieving. Didn't get a screen shot of 91, but here's what 90 looks like:

I have to try that bribing thing, looks like you can make some decent cash as well as decent xp.

Now that I don't have to keep pressing with Thieving, I checked out somethings. A friend told me that chins were at a record low, apparently they are. I bought a ton of them being that I really don't like Range, but need to get it higher. Trying to get everything 90+ (except Dungeoneering) by the end of the year isn't far off. I managed 84-86 by chinning monkey bones at ape in a few hours. I've been doing it at Nechs in the Chaos Tunnels now. Less xp, but decent drops to offset the cost as well as a good amount of charm drops.

Finally made settlement on my house last week. It's kept me busy and away from the game a bit, but all that work feels pretty awesome, to be honest.

Happy Memorial Day to everyone who's served and Happy Birthday Clint Eastwood! (Fistful of Dollars/A Few Dollars More/The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, Hang em High marathon on TCM is amazing!)

Going Rogue

2010-05-10T18:12:00.006-04:00

TCA's survivor competition still goes on and I'm still hanging in there. I use this as an excuse to train skills I normally don't because any motivation is good motivation.

It's how I got my Firemaking cape. Since that, I've been Thieving. I'm actually, dare I say it, enjoying it. As you get more levels, the experience comes quicker and its amazing how quick you get it. I'm averaging between 12k-13k per run at Pyramid Plunder now.

One thing that I've always wanted was the Rogue outfit from the Rogue's Den maze minigame. I had attempted this several times before and it is NOT easy. Or fun. More, incredibly frustrating. You labor for a while going all the way around this spiral trying to get to the middle and its filled with a ton of traps. Trigger just one, and you have to start all over again.

I had never made it to the center before, even with using a map. Even if you get to the middle and go to loot the safe, instead of giving you a reward, it might spring a trap and you'll have nothing and have to start all over again.

However, at 80 you can use a pretty sweet shortcut. I needed a break from the Pyramid and since I've made it up to 83 Thieving so far, I thought I might as well try it. The first couple of times were rough, but once I got it down, I was breezing through with it taking me about 3 mins from start to finish per run. No wonder why no one does this, the xp is TERRIBLE. I would get about 360xp in each Agility and Thieving each run. It took me about 2.5-3 hours to get it all put I love the way it looks for the full outfit.

This is the outfit I've been plundering in since I got it. I had thought it'd be like Temple Trekking for the Lumberjack outfit, this seemed to go faster. The mask was the last part of it. I ended up with 4 pants, 3 gloves, 1 boots, 2 tops and one mask.

Say what you will about the Ring of Wealth. I know it shouldn't work. However, I put it on in a whim last week and I got a Pharaoh Sceptre. I've kept it on and I just got my second sceptre. Sheer luck? I'm sure of it, but I'm not going to mess with a good thing.

I FINALLY got a Farming rock from a herbrun. Was my 43rd lap around the patches. Still waiting on the second one. Up to run 49 now. This is ridiculous.

Plundering Pyramids, Batman

2010-05-03T09:13:00.002-04:00

TCA’s Survivor competition plows on and I’m still alive. Using the penance horn, it was pretty easy to get a lot of Firemaking experience. I got that to 99 and so that’s over with. The main reason I like this contest is that I use it as an excuse to train the skills I’m not that big of a fan of. I took a look at my lowest skills – Agility, Thieving and Hunter. Agility would keep up the streak of doing Barb Assault and using the horn, but I lost my Ninja Greegree. No idea how. I have every other one but that, and I know I had it a few weeks ago. Its such a pain to get back, ugh. Hunter means competition for spots so blah, Thieving it is.

Spent a few hours at Pyramid Plunder yesterday. I was a little rusty, but then got into a nice rhythm. Got that up to 79, can’t wait for 80 for the Rogue’s Den shortcut and then 81 for the new room at PP. I also took the time to do all the capers to get my Thieving Guild all set up. If you use the chests that give 4 Hanky Points, it goes pretty quick. It’s a nice little bonus, but I can’t see myself staying there any longer than the 5 mins to get the points and cash in. There seems to be a lot of useless rooms in there, hopefully they’ll do something with it in the future.

I’ve been doing 1 or 2 Dungeons a night. I’ve figured out that’s my perfect tolerance level. I use it as a break for whatever it is I’m doing. I PM’d my friend and she said she was up for one. Thank god she was with me, the very first room required 95 Construction and 93 Mining to get out of. She could open both of those, but then we uselessly kicked the 105 Runecrafting door. You’ve got to be kidding me with those requirements for one dungeon. It was only lvl 14. Cut us a little slack at least.

We still got to the boss despite the RC door. It was the first time I got to fight a… (*googles ‘dungeoneering bosses’*) Bulwark Beast. I got another volume of notes. I’m wondering if they’ll add up to something decent. At least have the story entertain me, that’s all I want. Getting a paragraph at a time over the course of hours, I can’t remember what they’ve said to put a cohesive storyline together.

So we finished that one and did another before I crashed to sleep. Up to 40 Dungeoneering now. Having a level required door, which you can’t open, stand in your way is pretty decent motivation to go do that skill.

Also, I’m giving up on the strange rock statue. I’ve now done 31 herb runs without a single rock. Before you say it – yes, I checked the statue and still need the Farming rock.

I added Kitt's new blog (The World Portal) as well as Vandyballer's to the blog list on the right. Which is kind of amusing, because I read both of them regularly and I just never noticed I hadn't put them up there. Sorry guys!

99 Firemaking!

2010-04-25T20:19:00.002-04:00

Got over 1m xp in just a matter of hours. Fire gloves + fire ring + horn + euchs = roughly 11k xp per inventory and 397xp each log.

Geoneering

2010-04-24T21:24:00.003-04:00

I hate calling the new skill "Dung." Does "Geoneering" work?

I've been busy, life has been crazy. I tried out the new skill a bunch of times now and its alright. I'm kind of done with it for the time being. I think its a great distraction though. My issues with it are more personal than with the skill itself.

I hate to say it, but voice chat ruins the game for me. It's a great thing when you can be a part of it, however, you can't always be a part of it. Most of my friends use skype. My computer limits me to either playing RS or using skype. That said, I usually play the game. Dungeoneering is like godwars in my opinion, communication is the key to it. When you're the only one who isn't in on the communication aspect of it, it gets incredibly frustrating. Seeing friends stand in seemingly science, then get upset at you for not doing what you should be doing, when not a word is even said, isn't a fun way to play the game.

It also doesn't help that most of my friends have a much higher dungeoneering level than I do. When I go with them in a group, not only do I not know what they're talking about, how they're organizing, etc; I don't know what's going on and its mostly assumed that I do.

Assumptions kill me. It's so frustrating. Please don't assume I know what I'm doing, because I usually don't. The room you're talking to everyone on voice chat, tell me to join into, then get upset at me because I don't know what's going on when I've repeatedly mentioned I've never seen that room before while everyone talks about it on voice chat and plans it, but in-game seemingly everyone is dead silent, isn't fun.

This brings me to another aspect; multiplayer requirements are not that fun for me. I love skilling and playing with other people, however, being dependent on others isn't really my thing. Not that I don't love my in game friends, its just that I'm kind of independent. I like to do my own thing. I'll do my own thing with friends, but I just don't like having to depend on anyone.

That said, I'm taking a break from that skill for a while. If people I know who aren't on voice chat are doing it, I'll gladly join (Jax, I'm looking in your direction), but otherwise, I hate feeling like the odd man out.

Our Survivor competition will more thank likely get me to 99 Firemaking this coming week. I'm pretty excited about that. I love the orange cape as well as the emote!

Jagex announced Runefest. Seems like an adult get together in London for RS fans. I really want to go. Actually that's an understatement. The opportunity to hang out with RS fans IRL, have a pint and hang out with developers sounds ideal. Sadly, it comes at pretty much the worst weekend it can. I have a wedding the weekend before, and another the weekend after on the other side of the USA, on top of having settlement on my house in 4 weeks, funds are tight. Plus I think I might be going to Ireland in June. I'm kind of stretching it thin.

I strongly suggest anyone in England go though, and let me know how it is. England's a small country, its like Pennsylvania :) It would be worth the drive. I've only ever met one RS player in real life and it was a great time and she was pretty amazing. I'd love to meet more and just have a drink and relax with the ones I usually talk to.

Anyways, back to skilling and not getting rocks (18th herb run and still not a single rock).

Go Phillies!

Metropoliscape

2010-04-16T09:17:00.003-04:00

Where to even start? Got back from my cruise to the Caribbean. Was nice, don't think I can do that again though. Didn't get seasick or anything, it was just disorienting at times. Great weather and fun with friends though.

Work's had me busy lately as well, which is good. I managed to get my 99 Strength at the same time as a friend, which was fun. We got the level by pulling sharks out of the water barehanded at Catherby.

The new skill was released, Dungeoneering. I'm a little on the fence with it. My main complaints are it being multiplayer (yes, I know you can solo too), the prestige system, and the repetitiveness of it.

I like that its an interesting way to train all your skills. All inefficiently, but I guess that's good if you log on and have no idea what to work on.

The multiplayer thing I don't really like. I have no problem requiring a team to go to godwars, do some minigames, etc. However, when I want to work on a skill, I don't like that the xp I get is dependent upon other people. Yes I know PC, SW, etc are basically the same, however those aren't the only ways to train those skills you get xp in.

I've read the Prestige system several times and I still don't get it. How am I getting 0 prestige on a room I've never even been in before? My first few levels it was 0. I don't get how its 0 if I've never even been in the dungeon before. Most of the player explanations use other games such as Call of Duty to explain it. Well, great... I've never played that. This is the only game I play, unless you want to count Brickbreaker on my Blackberry.

The repetitiveness I'm hoping gets better. Right now its run around various rooms for an hour, mine, smelt, make armor, fight a boss, repeat. I was hoping for some more mentally challenging aspects of it. So far the only one that was interesting was arming statues to fight their counterparts with the appropriate combat technique.

I'm dating myself with this, but did anyone out there ever play Adventure? It's a video game from when I was a kid. You were basically a dot who ran from room to room in a castle looking for certain colored keys to open certain doors. There were also weapons you would have to find in order to kill the dragons guarding it. When you completed a level, you moved on to the next castle, where you would do the same thing, just a little bit harder.

The first thing I thought of while working on this skill was that it seemed like an updated version of that game.

I'm kind of bummed, I was really looking forward to the skill but it just seems like a time trap providing very little xp and little rewards. I'll wait though. Summoning had its issues when it was first released as well. They were tweaked after a few weeks of release. Hunting and Construction had some as well after their releases. I'm sure this will as well.

I think I'll like it once I get over the initial disappointment and try to convince myself that I'm doing a fun activity, not trying to train a skill. My mind works in two ways when playing. There's 'get xp' mode and there's 'minigame for fun, godwars bosses, hanging out' mode. The fact that they're trying to merge the two is making my mind explode.

Also the ores is driving me crazy. Couldn't we just have kept addy, rune, etc? The new names, trying to look up which is better, realizing I used the crappy ore to make a platebody and the good one to make gauntlets, is confusing. The names of the ores seem similar as well, adding to it.

One thing that looks promising is that this skill goes up to level 120. I love this because I believe this is a sign that other skills will follow suit. Some might complain about this, saying its too high, but I never understood the cap of 99 when you can get up to 200M xp in a skill. I know people are protective of their capes and the 99s they earned, which is still a great accomplishment, but it means more content will be added. With a new skill released say, every 2 years (just a guess), you eventually catch up to the game. Adding new content at say lvl 60 doesn't do much when you've got the highest level already. This isn't coming from someone saying their too high for new content, don't get me wrong. I just mean that if you've played for a number of years, and continue to play for a few more years, you eventually run out of levels to get if you're someone who does every aspect of the game.

Think of it as a a city. Eventually all the buildings get filled with residents. You can expand laterally by building an entire new building which takes years to execute (new skill), or you have the option of expanding vertically to the buildings which already exist. This still takes time, however much less since the foundation and existing structure are already in place.

I had openly wondered about the 200M xp cap as well. Someone pointed out that it was probably a server space issue when the game was in its early years. That makes complete sense. At the time, the buildings could only get so high. However, we've now got the technology to make them bigger.

Americans, I hope you got your taxes done! :)

They Keep Pulling Me Back In

2010-03-23T10:18:00.003-04:00

Finally finished off my Blue Dragon task. It left me a few kxp from a Range level. I walked out of the dungeon to get a new task from Kuradel. I was hoping for something fun, I still haven't even seen a strykwyrm yet (unless you count watching Dune). I see an assignment with lots of T's and Z's in it, and the option...

I've been meaning to go back to face Jad at somepoint. I really want that firecape. Here's my excuse to try again.

I've tried about 9 times total now. Excluding just getting to the 360 for the Karamja Diary and the first time, I've made it to Jad each time. The waves aren't even an issue anymore. Its just that prayer switching that always gets me then boom, dead.

I didn't know what to train range on so I killed some Dusties to get 84 Range. It's really one of my least favorite skills. It's just so incredibly slow.

I'm not going to start doing waves just yet. The time commitment is one thing. I want to be able to start and do it beginning to end. I think logging out between waves kind of messes up your rhythm. I'll try to get to that this weekend hopefully.

Full of Pie's birthday is Saturday, which is awesome because mine is the following Tuesday. Go Aries! She's having a party, I'd love to try and make it to, but real life is going to be hectic for me the next two weeks. But check it out here:

I'm about 240k from 99 Strength. It'll be my first combat 99. It's weird to think about. I remember the tradition used to be that when you got 99 Strength you drop your dragon scimitar. I'll take one, drop it on the ground and then pick it back up again (I NEED that for Barb Assault!).

This week is a little busy and next week will be too. I'm taking a short vacation at the end of next week (Bahamas! Cruise!) so I might not be around for a little. Blogging at least. I'll try, just giving a heads up.

Speaking of which, has ANYONE seen or heard from Vaskor?

Runescape Gods Exposed

2010-03-22T18:51:00.003-04:00

I'm probably late to the game in viewing these, but I stumbled across these on youtube last night and thought they were pretty hilarious. I'm clueless when it comes to making game videos, so it always amazes me when I see ones that are really well done.

So, enjoy!

Ok, Breathe

2010-03-15T17:04:00.004-04:00

XP weekend is over. I'm not sure if we'll get to see another one based off of the overwhelmingly negative response on RSOF. I think it was a pretty fun time. The real key to this weekend really was in the planning.

Tweaking my tree checking route with a few dry runs allowed me to check all 12 of my trees with the 2.7xp bonus, tagging the last one about a second before it dropped to 2.5. All after completing the circus as well.

The end results:

I'm close to a Magic and Ranged level. Went from 82-84 Farming, 80-86 Summoning (so close to that unicorn, but so blasted far as well) and 76-81 Herblore. I managed to get everything done in the time I figured it would (tree run and circus going MUCH faster than I guessed) and I used my last gold charm just as the counter hit 1.2. It was pretty insane seeing 950,000 bonus xp in just an hour. I didn't even stop to read the level up messages, just kept going because I didn't want to waste any time.

I was pretty burned out by then. I didn't use much of the 1.2 or 1.1 bonus like I thought I would. Did a few Runecrafting runs, but nothing major. Lots of real life things got in the way most of Saturday and Sunday. I'm glad I got the majority of it Friday night.

New F2P quest released today. I think I might actually hop to a F2P world to do it. Should be interesting.

Documenting Insanity

2010-03-11T23:32:00.004-05:00

I sat like this for about 5 minutes while waiting for my lifepoints to regenerate. I want to start everything off at max, don't ask me why. Besides, I was chatting with friends. But let me tell you, after about 3 minutes of watching that thing go back and forth at you with those spring sound effects... Wow.

Anyways, for figuring out how much xp I'm getting this weekend, I'm posting this:

Now, there is a major storm on the way here, starting tomorrow AM. I get done work at 5pm, usually home by 6pm. It's supposed to be incredibly bad with very high winds from early tomorrow afternoon (between 12-2PM) until about midnight on Saturday. So help me Saradomin, if my power goes out for this weekend, I am PKing mother nature.

Bring It!

2010-03-11T21:14:00.008-05:00

My bank, my inventory and what I'm wearing to start this off. I put my character to sleep next to the circus tonight so I'm ready to go right as I 'wake up.'

1) Circus
2) Tag Lumby tree right next to it.
3) Cabbage port to tag the spirit tree at port sarim
4) Varrock tele tab, tag tree there
5) Fally teletab, tag tree in the park
6) Duel ring to Castlewars, take balloon to taverly
7) Karamja Gloves teleport to Shilo, pay cart guy to go to Brim, tag Brimhaven tree, run and tag Calquat
8) Elf Crystal tele to Lletya, tag palm there.
9) Mobilizing Armies teleport, spirit tree teleport to gnome maze, get escorted out by following the elf, tag fruit tree there (NE of CW)
10) Camelot teletab, run to catherby to tag tree
11) Mobilizing Armies teleport, spirit tree teleport to gnome stronghold, tag fruit tree, run southeast and tag last regular tree.

I've timed the dry run of the trees a couple of times. I get it done in about 7 minutes. A friend did it in less than 5. Assuming circus takes me 15 mins (conservative assumption, I'm sure it'll be faster), that puts me at 22 minutes into the bonus. After that, castle wars teleport, bank everything, withdraw all pouches, shards, crimson charms, 20 talon charms (still bitter).

That should put me at about 23-24 minutes.
12) Kyatt tele to Piscatoris, make all talon charms
13) Duel to CW, bank crimsons, withdraw blues and make all of those
14) Finish crimsons & granite (1300 charms total between crim & blue)

That should be a little over an hour.

So, lets be conservative again and say that puts me at 1:45

15) Make 2300 Magic Potions

I'm guessing 2.5 hours for that. So 3:15.

16) Make 4k gold charms. Split between toads/birds. Toads get used first.

I'm guessing 3.5 hours for that. Then I'm at 6:45.

At this point the bonus xp is pretty negligible. I'm probably also mentally out of it.

Log out, maybe go to bed.

When I get up, probably thieve for a little bit, maybe an hour or until I get sick of it. The rest I'll probably just RC.

EDIT: I moved my pouches to the same tab.

I'm ready for it though.

All Trekked Out

2010-03-08T08:35:00.000-05:00

First off, I have to say congrats to Full of Pie on her 99 Agility. Check out her post here, along with the most adorable looking ‘cake’ ever.

Real life rewards for in-game accomplishments are always fun. Two years ago when I got my fishing cape, I treated myself to a pretty sweet pair of Nike Dunks that I designed to be two shades of blue with gold highlights. I’ll post a pic when I get home and find them.

Ok so… Temple Trekking for charms… Yeah…

I am probably the unluckiest person when it comes to Temple Trekking. I spent 10 hours doing it this weekend. I got full lumberjack and decided that was my cue to give it up. In 10 hours I managed to amass 10 Lumberjack Boots, 4 Lumberjack Hats, 2 legs and 1 top. This was just a side product of what I really wanted, which was charms. Total charms amassed in 10 hours? Drumroll please... 20. 20 freaking charms. What else did I manage to get? Lots of bogs. I think I broke a record when I got the bog on 7 STRAIGHT treks. I also managed to come upon a 17 square bog path.

I mean, really? That’s just downright mean. Once I got the Lumberjack Top, I gave up. Well, for 10 hours I have almost an inventory for Summoning. >.<

Nothing too much else accomplished. I fished sharks in Catherby for about an hour trying to get those rocks for Shattered Heart. Someone mentioned switching to Piscatoris. When I did that, I got one before I even caught my first monk. So if you’re wondering a good way to get it, Piscatoris is the way to go. While there I did a few lines of Firemaking for those stones. Went to Edge to smith some gold ore for the Smithing stones. That was a rough one. I got the first one alright but the second took forever. I finally got it on my second to last ore. From there I sat in my house and got the Construction stones. I cashed all those in and got some decent xp.

That was pretty much it for the weekend. It was good to get to hang out with Merch Gwyar and Warloc for a while at least. Temple Trekking is actually pretty fun, and made even better with friends. As for now, back to prepping for xp week. Which means cutting granite. Fun.

I’m half tempted to change my name to Full of Bog.

I'm Just an Escort

2010-03-05T09:13:00.000-05:00

I read Merch Gwyar’s post on finding a pattern to Talon Beast charms and thought I’d give it a shot. Wow. I haven’t done this in years and I am *terrible* at it. I switched to world 83 and started escorting people back and forth. This didn’t start off too well. First, I forgot a hatchet. Then I forgot the knife. Then I forgot my flail, which turns out I never needed anyway. Numerous failed attempts left me stranded in the swamp, my second least favorite place on the runescape map (elf lands is the current leader of that). I had been at it about an hour and was starting to get frustrated. Luckily this is when Merch appeared out of thin air, right in front of me.

She helped me get sorted out, fixing my inventory, telling me about snake hides and most importantly, the ‘evade’ path. I was stupidly fighting every single thing in my way. The non-combat interruptions took me forever to figure out, especially the vine one. I probably go up and back once in the time it takes people to do 3 or 4 runs, but that’s ok with me.

I got my first piece of lumberjack gear ever. I could never really justify spending the time to get it. I’d hear people complain for days about how they didn’t get a top or legs or whatever. It always seemed to me that if you just spend that time Woodcutting, it even outweighs the slight bonus you get from the clothes. I can understand if you want to fill your closet, but it just was never for me. However, in the hunt for talon charms for the bonus xp weekend, I’ll take it as a nice side gift. So far I got the hat, then the boots, then the hat, then the boots, then the boots… I sense a pattern here.

I had no luck getting charms, but I got a lot of snakes, Merch suggested hopping and trying a different world, so I did that. Still no luck. It was alright though, I was enjoying myself. I hate not knowing certain parts of the game, so this was a good reason to familiarize myself with it. I temple trekked for a good four hours. I amused myself by making up storylines for the people I was protecting. One person was going to save the world, another was carrying a heart that someone needed desperately for a transplant, one was a highly ranked political figure and I was escorting him to safety in the midst of a coup to overthrow him, etc.. Anyways, I did it for four hours and I never came across the nail beasts or got a charm. My friends were amazed, apparently that’s amazingly bad luck, but I didn’t really think anything of it. I could have kept hopping worlds, but I was having fun. I’ll give it another shot, who knows? Maybe I’ll get on a hot streak.

Other than that, just been getting prepped for next week. I’ve got about 2500 lantadyme and potato cactus. I’ve made most of the unf pots, but I still have about 500 more to go. I figure 2500 is a good limit to give myself. Anything over that I feel isn’t going to get that much bonus xp considering I plan to do summoning first.

The Great Freakout of 2010 Part 2: Son of Great Freakout

2010-03-01T14:32:00.003-05:00

Ok, a boring lunch break at the office led to a few things. What do I do when I get bored? Math, of course. I ran some numbers. As it stands right now at the moment, I have 107 Blue Charms, 1097 Crimson Charms, 235 Green Charms and 3940 Gold Charms.

I have seconds for these, with the exception of the crimson ones. I'm going to have to get some granite, but that's easy enough. Lets see if I can format this in a readable way...

Charm - Pouch - Second - Shards - xp each - Total Exp
107 Blue Charms - Moss Titan - Earth Talis - 202 - 695.2xp - 74,386.4
1097 Crimson - Granite Lob - Granite - 166 - 325.6 - 357,183.2
3940 Gold Charm - Terrorbird - Bird Meat - 12 - 68.4 - 269,496
235 Green Charm - Hydra - Water Orb - 128 - 140.8 - 32,947.2

That's a total of 734,012.8xp. Using the conservative estimate of 2, brings it to 1,468,025.6xp. It also brings it to 281,076 shards used which has a price tag of 7,026,900gp. Of course, you can trade pouches back in for more shards. That'll get me about 5 Summoning levels and put me between level 85-86 (starting level 80).

Not bad, however making 4k birdie pouches is going to take a lot of time. I was thinking I need to organize even more that I realized initially. 10 hours is long, but that xp curve downward is sharp. It also doesn't decrease every half hour in stages, its decreasing as you go. That said, that first inventory of pouches is yielding more xp than your next one in 2 mins.

If I did all of those charms, there wouldn't be much for Herblore's bonus. I didn't want to mess around with making this pot here, than that there, etc. I sold almost all of my herbs and am sticking to making just Magic Potions. Focus on one thing, and its easier for me to work on that.

Some things need to be done this weekend in order to maximize the time used. First, I need to reorganize my bank. I need to move things around to free up a tab. I want all the bonus xp weekend things I need in the same place so that I don't have to waste even seconds looking for them. This is going to include my best range gear, dagon hai robes, spottier cape, boots of lightness, charms, pouches, shards, seconds, unf lantadyme pots, potato cactus, charged glories, dramen staff, adze, elf crystal, karamja gloves, cash, all teleport runes and rune essence.

Tuesday I'm going to plant and pay for my spirit & calquat trees. Wednesday I'm going to plant and pay for all of my other trees (5 Magic, 5 Palm). I'm hoping the Circus is somewhat close to a bank (please be edgeville), but am willing to doubt that it will be.

Plan is to wear boots of lightness, spottier cape and charged glory and park myself right next to that ticket booth when I log off on Thursday night. This way I log in, do the agility, tele to edge, bank get all my range gear, back to circus for range, bank, get my dagon hai robes, back to circus for mage.

Circus done, check.

After that's complete, I bank grab my Karamja gloves, cash, teleports, elf crystal so I can do a quick run checking all my trees. Not bothering to replant or even pick, just check health.

Grab my dramen staff and its off to Piscatoris to Summon. From here, I'll do all my Blue Charms first, then onto the Crimson ones. I might do green as well.

As I run back to the bank I'll start stuffing potato cacti into my unf lant pots until they're complete. Then, once they're all done, on to using the Gold Charms.

Once they're through, I've mainly gotten what I wanted to accomplish over with.

Deep breath.

The rest of the time I'll be taking relaxing strolls from edge into the abyss and making runes.

That's the plan for now. Strategy may change, but I think that's a pretty decent one.

The Great Freakout of 2010

2010-03-01T10:01:00.003-05:00

XP weekend is pretty much all anyone is talking about. Godswords and expensive armor are crashing in price as people frantically sell what they have to buy up herbs, pots and seconds as well as other skill necessities in the GE.

I'm guilty of this as well. I haven't sold anything, I like my armor, but that stockpile of cash I've been hoarding is going to be put to good use. Since so much is virtually sold out of the GE, its making trading one item for another kind of fun among friends. It's also making me herb farm as quickly as possible.

I think I've got my plans in order. I have over 7k pure ess, so that should tide me over for the Runecrafting. At least until my sanity gives out.

Everyone has the same variation of skills they want to train, from what I've gathered on others. Summoning and Herblore seem to be the top two. Can't say I'm any different. Two skills that don't really have any other way of boosting xp other than Penguin Points. No clay vials or pouches to use from Stealing Creation.

It's interesting to me to see that everyone seems to be doing nothing but skilling that weekend. Its kind of cool, to be honest. I want to see the bounceback price changes that happen after that weekend.

This is going to be a big push for levels, and I love it. I feel like after all this gathering cactus, filling vials, etc, I'm going to be disappointed in what Herblore level I end up. I dream big, but I think I'm going to get maybe 2 levels max. That even seems pretty high. Oh well, motivation is motivation.

This goes right TCA's survivor competition. Basically everyone races skills over weeks to lose their minds. I'm not sure I'm fully recovered from the last one.

This has had me spending some time back at Stealing Creation. It's been a while since I've played this. I realized I missed it a lot, the skill only version. The clanchat has changed a lot since the last time I played. It seems some let the little rank next to them in clan chat go to their heads. Its fine though, I usually just ignore whatever's going on and focus on getting my clay and making what I need.

Olympics are over, sadly. 35 days until the first baseball game of the regular season. Seems like forever, but it'll pass soon enough. Until then, I'll continue prepping for D-Weekend :)

Happy Hour!

2010-02-26T16:32:00.004-05:00

Wow, this is pretty amazing. Also, went unnoticed until someone pointed it out. Jagex is having an extra xp weekend. It's the weekend of March 12. You start off making 2.7x xp in the first hour, eventually dipping to 1.1x xp after 10 hours and then remaining constant at that rate until Sunday.

Check it out here.

Awesome? Yes! Much like everything awesome, this is going to take planning. Altars, clay, horn, and any thing where you 'cash in points for xp' do not count.

Considering my hatred of Hunting and Agility, they might be in the early hours. I'm thinking the best way to start out though is to plant all my high level trees before, then check health as soon as I log in. That takes very little time and will have a pretty high reward.

Summoning is definitely going to play a major part, good thing I have a good amount of Crims banked. I'm not going to waste my time with runecrafting. 600xp per run over 300 xp per run doesn't make much difference. Don't think I'll bother with Construction either, I'll just stick to using clay hammers for that.

I'm thinking Farm-Summon-Herb-Hunt and Agil with the 1.1 bonus.

Watch, my power will be out or something. How do you plan to use this valuable time?

Bane

2010-02-21T12:14:00.003-05:00

I've worked my way up to 93 Zeal points. I want to cash in on the 70 Zeal from the Nomad quest. I was in three winning games yesterday, where at 2-3 minutes left, I get this:

It's happening constantly. Even when just running down the street this happens. Lnbo gave me some advice about updating drivers. I'll give that a shot. I just feel like this error is on their end, not my end. At least from what the message says it seems that way to me.

Blah... Hating it.

785 - The Number of the Beast

2010-02-18T09:04:00.002-05:00

Am I the only one experiencing repeated game crashes? Roughly about 1 of 4 time I teleport to Edgeville, I log out. 2 out of every 3 deaths results in a log out. Other random actions cause me to log out and come up with an error screen. This is incredibly annoying.

It’s been a bit, I haven’t been doing too much. I got to 97 Strength. It’s been a combination of Slayer and dancing with Abby Demons, which are a lot of fun in my opinion. Also, whips are a nice bonus here and there.

Something’s up with my computer. It’s plugged in, and says charging, but when its unplugged it shuts right off. I think I need a new battery.

One incredibly new thing I’ve been doing lately is going to kill the Corporeal Beast. Which, had you asked me to go last week, I would have laughed, but one random day it seemed like a good idea. To make things even a little more character, I give you this statement: It’s not that bad.

The first time we went I think we had about 7 people. I was completely amazed. The gear and food you take is planned out pretty well. With a full inventory my max risked wealth was barely over 200k gp. I couldn’t believe it. This is far less than any other combat group trip I’ve ever taken which is considered “dangerous.” Technically, if you die after you’ve eaten most of your food, the value is even less.

The thrill of actually fighting and beating THE biggest monsters in the game is incredible. Also, the potential to split a 500M drop is pretty sweet as well.

Here’s the gear I use:
Head – Neitz helm*
Neck – Glory (Some use fury as its kept on death, but I sold mine when they were over 9.5m)
Chest – Black D’hide
Legs – Black D’hide
Cape – Soul Wars* (or skill cape, or whatever has good stats)
Weapon – Zamorakian Spear*
Hands – Combat Bracelet (don’t ask me why, just what I was told. I try not to use barrows gloves here as their high alch value gives them priority over some valuable objects when you die)
Ring – Life
Feet – Climbing Boots (+2 str, great defensive stats and incredibly cheap)

The starred ones are my 3 objects kept on death. I recommend protect item prayer as well, which keeps either your neitz helm or glory, I can’t remember.

Inventory:
Pray Pot x 2
Home tele tab
Sharks

Optional:
Super Set
Games Necklace
-I usually just take more food instead, but do what works.

No even need for expensive brews, tuna taters, rocktail or mantas. Sharks work fine. I DO recommend you having some pretty high levels for doing this, keep that in mind. You can also range, Ruby (e) bolts hit 100 max and help, but I don’t know the gear for that being not much of a ranger myself.

Now, what do you do? Hopefully you have a pretty decent team. Expect only a kill or two, consider anything more than that a bonus. This is easy enough because the wildy volcano bank isn’t far away for restocking. I use the games necklace to get there, then bank it so I can take another shark, some choose to hang onto it. Do whatever works for you.

Gather at the tunnel entrance and you’ll be praying protect magic and protect item the entire time, so set quickpray to that. Do NOT use a familiar, the beast eats them and is a waste. One person enters, gets the beast’s attention and runs out of the tunnel. That person then runs away even further from the entrance and a bit north, making the beast move away from the other side of the entrance. When he’s out of the doorway, everyone else enters and attacks.

The strategy is pretty basic. If you’ve ever fought a nomad or a jad, this will seem like cake. Spread out a bit while attacking, being careful not to get under his feet. He will literally crush you and it hurts a lot. Every now and then the beast switches targets. When he targets you, run out of the cave, trying not to go under his feet. When he switches to a new target, go back in and start hitting again. Pray on always, zamorakian spear set to ‘lunge.’ That’s it. Eat when you get hit and pray for a good drop.

There is a 'dark energy core' that comes out of the beast as well. This saps your HP. Avoid it as well. If someone can 'stun' this, it helps greatly.

I believe you have to be in the cave for lootshare to affect you, so if he’s targeting you, try to go in right as he dies. Also, if everyone runs out of the cave at the same time, he heals back to 100%, so try not to let that happen. I died a few times (immediately causing an error crash and no hope of a grave anyway), but like I said, didn’t lose much at all. I have too many sets of dhide to count from doing so many terrible clues.

I got a couple of the drops, 13 blue charms at once was nice. I got a Regen Bracelet, which I don’t really think would be useful in really any situation I can think of (When would I need to heal slightly less slowly?) so I sold that for about 450k. 150 Mahogany logs as well. That was it. Like I said, not many kills, but it was a lot of fun for the hour or so we were there.

As terrifying/stupid as it sounds, I recommend trying it.

Epilogue

2010-02-02T11:40:00.004-05:00

SPOILERS – IF YOU HAVEN”T BEATEN THE NOMAD'S REQUIEM QUEST AND DO NOT WISH TO KNOW WHAT IT REVEALS, STOP READING HERE.

IF YOU HAVE, SCROLL DOWN.

Still here? Ok then. I hate when people don’t do that for TV shows and movie reviews. Ok, Nomad’s dead.

You go and talk to the imp guy, and he asks why you killed him. That jerk! What I thought was the best part of the quest, might be a minor detail to everyone else. When the imp asks if you’re sure he’s dead, there’s a cutscene of you taking him to the body. What do you do to prove he’s dead? You kick him in the head! I started cracking up at that!

Great detail! Maybe a little side thing Jagex put in, knowing the quest was insanely difficult, as a little retribution.

Now, if you read Jax’s blog regularly (which you should), she predicted there would be a part 2 to the Nomad, revealing the soul altar. We talked about this while fishing, and it makes perfect sense. The Blood and Death Altars all have multiple parts to pretty big quests. MEP2 and the 4 part Meyerditch series. Also, she brought up the good point that mathematically, it’ll probably require 90 RC. Again, keeping with the pattern for what you can craft using that skill at what level, it makes sense.

Here’s where the fun kicks in. After showing the imp the dead nomad, he starts talking about how you’re under the soul obelisk at soul wars, which is where you put in your soul fragments. So its there collecting all the souls from the games and storing them. Who would want to store souls? According to the imp ‘those magicky type people may want them.’ Boom! Soul Altar, its gotta be there!

After all that talk, well look at this, Nomad gets up, and teleports away! Jerk! I sense the second part of this quiz takes you further into the tent down to where the soul altar will be. As it stands now, just being in the room below the Nomad seems too easy, and way to close to the Soul Wars bank for Runecrafting. The Death and Blood Altars are insanely far away from banks, I don’t see why the Soul Altar would be any different.

One thing that scares me is that when you see something, fight it, and then need to fight it again in another quest, its usually harder than before. This might not be the case with how difficult this actually was, but it’d be weird if the followup was a cake walk. Maybe, since this one was very difficult cb wise, the next one will have ridiculous skill requirements.

Crap. Are they going to make us have 90 RC in order to complete a quest? Ok, no, they won’t. I had to stop and think about that one. The Blood Altar quest was completed when I definitely didn’t have 77 RC. Neither that or MEP2 made you craft the runes they had at their altars.

Should be an interesting couple of weeks 

Recap

2010-02-02T11:26:00.001-05:00

Ok, So I finally beat Nomad. I’m usually pretty calm and cool at boss fights, which is something that has probably saved me countless times. Fighting this guy many, many times definitely helps. For about 4 straight attempts I got him to beserker mode before running out of pots and dying. It was until I had him down pretty low, with some pots left that the nerves finally kicked in. The last couple sips were done with a shaky finger. Why’s it always seem that when the bad guy’s hp bar is almost completely red, that’s when you make hits like 0-0-0-5-0-0-8-0 etc?

Here’s my gear:
Head: Neitz
Neck: Amulet of Ranging (shark tooth looking one)
Chest: Arma plate
Hands: Barrow gloves
Quiver: Ruby (e) bolts
Weapon: BGS
Legs: Black D’hide
Feet: Ranger boots
Finger: Archer’s ring

Inv:
Dragon Sq shield and Rune C’bow. 12 Super Restores, the rest Sara Brews along with a turtle full of Saras. The one thing different in my gear that I changed from all my failing attempts was wear a Neitz helm instead of my Sara Coif and use dragon square shield instead of my crystal shield (which was then down to 1/10)

Stats:
90 ATK
96 STR
90 DEF
93 HP
83 RANGE
81 PRAYER
80 SUMMONING

Before I’d go, while still at Soul Wars bank, I’d take a sip of super def/atk/str as well as a range pot. Put them back in the bank and grab the brews. I’d pray piety when I entered. For this run, I also prayed protect from magic and eagle eye the entire time. I know he hits through prayer and everyone says its useless to pray protection prayer, but if it maybe stopped 1 or 2 hits, then its worth it. I’m not experienced enough with curses to really know what I’m doing with them.

Ok, all potted up and piety on and first hit – whack him with a BGS special to lower his def. Eagle eye on and start shooting arrows. For the third straight time I was able to hit him over 35 with the BGS special and have it go immediately into a 75 Ruby (e) hit. That’s where I think the potting up helps. The brews knock that all out of whack when you start healing, but its worth it to start off well.

Other than that, just keep hitting him with the arrows. Once the first mine would hit the floor, I run immediately straight south about 5 spots, then west towards behind the pillar. The pillar is 2x2 spot, you want to be on the west side of the southern part. Heal, restore. When he says ‘face me’ run out and shoot him. When he charges up for his 75 hit, get back in the same pillar place, he won’t hit you. Come out from the pillar and fight him again on ‘face me.’ When he multiplies, hit the last one he attacks. Go back to the pillar spot, heal, again coming out on ‘face me.’ When he teleports you to the middle, heal up over your max hp, as he hits you for max-1. You can still shoot him while you’re frozen. I use this frozen time to cycle out the empty vials and ‘take bob’ as well. After he hits you, heal up again, stay put and attack.

This is where my first few runs went awry. It’s tempting that when you’re finally unfrozen, to run back to the pillar spot. DON’T! Stay and fight him head on. Wait for the mines to start dropping again, THEN run to the pillar. Again, run directly south about 5 spaces, THEN over. The issue is, if you run to the pillar when immediately unfrozen, the mines are dropped around the pillar and you, making it very confusing and difficult to move, especially when he duplicates.

Keep doing this and hoping, still praying eagle eye and pro mage. Make sure you hit him when he says ‘face me’ or he’ll totally heal which, from experience, completely sucks. When you get him down to 25%, he heals back up to 50%. When you get him back down to 25% again, he doesn’t like it and gets pretty ticked off. This is where he starts hitting you repeatedly fast.

Come out from behind the pillar, if that’s where you’re at. This is where I had an issue once or twice too. I would hit ‘attack nomad’ after he says his little beserker mode saying and my character would get held up on the pillar, still shooting him with arrows, and he’d tele and heal. This bites because I was only 2 squares away AND I was certainly attacking him. So, when he says his thing, be sure to run out and face him openly.

Turn on protect from melee (have it set on quick pray, might help), shoot him, sip saras, sip restores, and.. well… hope. The turtle helps too, he gets in his hits as well throughout the fight.

That’s what worked for me. I’m sure there are other ways, but that’s what I did. I know people who used Rocktails but they have higher def and range than I do. There’s also the issue of actually eating it. When you go to eat a fish, you stop and eat a fish. When you take a sip of a pot (brew), you continue shooting. This makes up for having to take a sip of a restore, where you again, continue shooting. I made 3-4 runs using rocktail and even a combination of rocktail/brew/restores and would get no where near where I would using only brews/restores. Again, just something that worked for me. Where to stand, when to run behind the pillar, etc was taken from what Buzzed27 told me to do. I mixed up the gear a bit and some other things. (I found my own little niche with the super set sips and piety for the bgs whack at the beginning).

Main thing is, keep trying, don’t get frustrated (easier said than done, I know) and find out what’s working best for you. I hope some of this helps at least someone.

Good Things

2010-02-02T00:17:00.006-05:00

Boom!

Boom!

Something that hasn't been done in like 10 months - boom!

Beat nomad, many, many, many thanks to Jax for hooking me up with some sara brews when they wouldn't sell for like 9 hours. Also, many thanks to Buzzed27 for some strategy tips. I'll show my gear, when I'm more awake.

Beat Nomad, finally, did new quest, got quest cape back and even got a whip drop while at abby demons.

Good day, indeed.

Repitition

2010-01-31T11:43:00.003-05:00

Work and training has me insanely busy. It's getting in the way of playing like I used to.

I managed to get 94 Woodcutting while reading, I was pretty stoked on that. Lately though, my gameplay has been "buy staves, let nomad kill me, rinse, repeat."

This is getting expensive.

I'll update when I have something more worthwhile to talk about or get to play more.

It's been an entire month without a cigarette. Kids, don't start, because quitting sucks.

Quests!

2010-01-19T09:19:00.000-05:00

Ok, so after a long, defeated delay, I started doing the circus again. I did it for probably the first 4 weeks it came out, would get like 200xp each and I gave it up. It wasn’t worth my time. I did it last Tuesday on the turn, so I did it, then an hour later it reset and I did it again. I got much better xp than I ever did originally, mainly because I read up on how to do it. It is the fastest xp you can get in any of the 3 skills (range, mage, agility), but I can’t get into it. I’ll probably add it to my weekly errands, but blah, it just seems kind of boring. I can see the intentions, and I have to hand it to Jagex for trying to come up with something interesting, but its just not my thing. Its like Bork & Jade vine, great rewards, but just can’t bring myself to do it regularly.

Anyways, that put me about 70k from 83 Ranged. I had about 500 chins from hunting so I decided to go to Ape Atoll and give this chinning a try. I had never done it before. It took a little bit to get used to, and I’m sure I did it wrong for a bit. Super fast xp though. Which is good, because Range has always been a skill that’s like pulling teeth to level for me. It just seems so slow. I know I should train it with Slayer, but I’m halfway through a Waterfiend task, and they aren’t really good to range on. That’s my problem with Slayer, on the rare occasion I’m motivated to train a certain attack style, it gives me a task where I can’t do it. I’m too stubborn to cancel the task as well. The chins got me to about 30k from the level. From there, I went to black drags at evil chicken’s lair and got the level there. Yay.

I don’t know what came over me. After getting the Ranged level, I figured I hadn’t punished myself enough, so I might as well quest. My hating of quests isn’t something I keep a secret. I do them mainly to get them over with, as well as get the rewards. It’s like running virtual errands. “In order to access that super fun area you really want to go, first you need to hop through hoops A, B &C, fill out an hour of paperwork, stand on one leg for an hour, then wear a ridiculous outfit and run laps around Varrock.” That’s how I feel.

That said, my hatred of quests has led me to doing most of them. I had a quest cape last year and have been lazy about keeping current on the new ones. I finally just said screw it, and did Fur & Seek, Within the Light, Curse of Arrav and Temple at Senntisten. Only the Nomad remains. Can’t wait for that one (sarcasm). They were all kind of ‘meh.’ At least I can use curses now. I only really want to do the nomad quest for the 70 zeal points and Soul Wars cape. +11 pray? *drools*

Wow, this is sounding like a really negative post. I’m actually thrilled with the fact that I accomplished so much stuff I don’t normally like doing so I mean it to be positive! Especially the quests. Motivation to quest comes in small doses which are very few and far between, so when it strikes, I really need to run with it.

I’ll take a shot at Nomad this weekend probably, see what all the fuss is about. It seems everyone I know has just been dying for a week straight at Soul Wars.

Ohh update just happened. They took the +4 str bonus away from the torso. I’m going to watch the ensuing firestorm now…

Here & There

2010-01-13T11:10:00.002-05:00

A slow weekend and two sick days from work led to me getting a bunch a levels I was close to:
76 Hunting
79 Construction
90 Defense (with this came 126 cb)
78-79-80 Summoning

I went to partake in running some laps at ape atoll for agility when I discovered my ninja greegree is missing. Great... Oh well, so much for that. I don't feel like getting it back just yet.

I still hate hunting. Since I eventually want to work on my range, I've been hunting chins. It's always crowded and people always seem to be obnoxious.

Made a solo run at Graardor yesterday, just got one kill of him and the minions before I left. Got a clue scroll from the general himself. I wonder what that has in store for me.

On another note, a friend of mine who I talked to a lot for some years now (not on runescape, but on another site) passed away suddenly at a young age the other day. I knew she had been sick and in the hospital, but never to a fatal extent. It's weird, you can type with people on a daily basis, maybe even talk via skype, but there's this weird social stigma attached to caring for people you haven't physically come in contact with. These *are* relationships. If you talk to someone daily for years, you are going to develop a friendship with them.

Losses like these are hard to deal with. Who can you even talk to about them? Your friends in real life might not get it. You might not have known anyone else that knows you in common to talk about it. Its rough and difficult to deal with.

Its weird because you're not actually a 'friend.' You don't get the phone calls or the updates. You only find out by wandering over to their facebook page to see if they posted anything new and all you see are comments like "you will be missed" and "RIP" and about how much you meant to everyone.

The friendships we form online are very real. There are real people behind each sentence and fun conversations had together. In these times, email, the internet, texts, all very impersonable forms of communication are ingrained into our heads, especially for those who are younger. These are very common ways to communicate and form these friendships. It does make me wonder what happens to the ones that we lose contact with. I try to imagine that they're doing what they like best. Hearing news like this though, makes it no easier to deal with than had it been a friend in real life. And life is a lot shorter than you think it is.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-05T20:12:00.003-05:00

I don't know what got into me, but I decided to try and kill Jad this weekend. It looks like I'm not alone in that either, turns out about 4-5 other friends got the itch as well.

I'm great at the waves now. I did it 4 times over Saturday and Sunday. Aside from Jad, wave 60 is the hardest. The trick is trapping the 180 behind one of the 90s. I got to Jad 3 of the 4 times, and he's killed me 3 of those 3 times. I can pray switch alright, but sometimes he fakes me out then when I go to eat, it takes a second for the pray switch to happen.

I broke down and bought arma plate and ranger boots and an archer's ring for the occasion. I'll sell them back *when* I defeat him.

Not much time to write, so I'll just show my goals for the year:
1)Reclaim Quest Cape and keep current with new quests
2)Beat jad's stupid face
3)All skills 90+
4)Reclaim Adze

I have about 4-5 quests left to go for the cape. The real part of that goal is trying to keep current with the new ones as they are released.

Jad, well, its personal now.

90+ is a pretty lofty goal. Most of my skills are in the 80s, with a handful in the 70s. The one in the 70s aren't the hardest to level (hunting, thieving, etc), I just need to sit down and do them. That's a goal of 100+ big levels, but its over 12 months. I'll have time I hope. If anything, its something to strive for. Also, this doesn't include the new skill to be released. We'll assess that when it comes out.

Adze - ugh I just need to do that stupid beacon thing again. Its been a couple months, I just hate it so.

Real life goals for 2010 - buy a house (been looking for months), quit smoking (currently dealing with this - not fun, but 5 days without one), finish the triathlon on memorial day weekend that I registered for.

Christmas came a little late!

2009-12-29T10:41:00.000-05:00

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...

2009-12-24T08:51:00.001-05:00

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

2009-12-18T11:19:00.000-05:00

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!

2009-11-23T18:16:00.003-05:00

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..."

2009-11-20T13:41:00.000-05:00

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?!

2009-11-18T14:56:00.003-05:00

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

2009-11-18T11:57:00.001-05:00

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

2009-11-10T08:50:00.002-05:00

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

2009-11-05T09:12:00.003-05:00

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...

2009-11-02T01:39:00.002-05:00

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

2009-10-26T16:50:00.001-04:00

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!

2009-10-22T16:33:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-08T15:37:00.002-04:00

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

2009-09-03T15:14:00.003-04:00

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...

2009-09-01T11:46:00.001-04:00

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

2009-08-26T11:28:00.003-04:00

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...

2009-08-24T15:29:00.000-04:00

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

2009-08-12T17:42:00.000-04:00

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

2009-08-11T10:11:00.002-04:00

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,,,

2009-08-06T21:07:00.002-04:00

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!

2009-08-05T23:14:00.000-04:00

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.

2009-08-01T10:36:00.003-04:00

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

2009-07-14T11:19:00.000-04:00

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

2009-07-09T13:51:00.000-04:00

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

2009-06-11T15:52:00.000-04:00

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

2009-06-10T16:14:00.002-04:00

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!

2009-05-27T15:19:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-08T09:06:00.001-04:00

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...

2009-05-06T10:45:00.003-04:00

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...

2009-05-05T16:09:00.000-04:00

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

2009-04-20T08:52:00.002-04:00

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...

2009-04-17T09:26:00.003-04:00

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...

2009-04-16T14:39:00.003-04:00

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

2009-04-03T14:20:00.003-04:00

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!

2009-03-30T00:05:00.002-04:00

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

2009-03-27T12:02:00.001-04:00

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

2009-03-23T23:28:00.002-04:00

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

2009-03-12T18:13:00.001-04:00

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.

Bring on the Games!

2009-03-11T18:02:00.001-04:00

Got my Quest Cape last Friday. I was never a big fan of questing, but WGS was pretty interesting. Also, no death, which is always welcome. I never claimed my xp reward and probably won’t for a while. The only thing that has me torn about it is the fact that there’s a cutscene preview of upcoming quests and I really want to see it, but to see it you need to claim your xp. There’s just not one skill I’m focusing on at the moment, but maybe with new releases or whatever there’ll be something I really want to get to, so for now, it can just wait. Its kind of good to know you have 400kxp in the bank.

Sunday was another awesome game of skill only Stealing Creations. I think there was a game that was only 12 minutes at one point, but I could be wrong.

I didn’t realize it until it was too late, but I definitely forgot to do penguins and I hate myself for it. Not only for the xp, but I actually kind of enjoy it. Also, it was the fact that when I realized it, I was only an hour too late and I had basically spent that time just clearing out bankspace.

I’m loving the Q&A with the company on the forums. I never grasped why people love to hate Jagex. They created something awesome, but for every update there’s someone reacting as if it ruined their lives. The game is fluid, we can adjust. They seem very candid and honest in their responses, while still being able to withhold information that they should. That information being upcoming plot lines, quest details, etc. You don’t see an author come out and say “the book ends like this…”, you need to have some things kept secret. I loved that they addressed the dragon pickaxe issue by saying they’re coming out with it, but are just figuring out a decent way to do it. I get that. You don’t want to release something people have been begging for directly for sale in a general store. You want to wow people and make you feel like you earned it. I’d love to see it released in a quest/mini-quest involving the star sprites since they’ve become such a big part of the Mining skill. Maybe deal with their origin or whatever. I also like that they not too subtly called out their mistakes. Its not the exact words, but it was along the lines of “do you really want another Firemaking skill?” Ouch. To my view, it pretty much calls out Firemaking on sucking and not really useful. Which, I think, is true. But the cape is orange, which makes it kind of awesome.

I hope this becomes a regular thing. A little bit of effort goes a long way. Even when people had suggestions that they shot down, they came up with pretty good reasons. The “yeah, we thought of that but just couldn’t figure out a way to execute it properly because of x, y and z” at least shows the player that they are in fact, trying these things out. And a few times, it makes perfect sense. Lag vs an unresponsive player? I get that too.

The reasoning behind Stealing Creations not giving skill xp cleared so much up for me. It makes sense. It *does* give xp basically, its just not given on the completion of the game directly. it’s the bonus xp you get from using their tools, which still makes you go out and actually do the skill. it’s a motivator to both play the minigame and actually go out and train that skill. Brilliant!

They hinted at a “Runescape Olympics” and it looks like they gave us just that with the Jagex Cup. Its on the forums under clans. I can not wait for this. I’m crossing my fingers our clan can enter all 3 things. However, we are kind of on the small side, spread out in a million different time zones, and the fact that I’ve never seen 20 people online at the same time is kind of an issue. We do our monthly in-clan skill months, but honestly, there’s only me and a handful of others (5 tops) that actually care or do it. I want to do the skilling one, just hope that others do too. I’d help out at the combo one, not saying how good I’d be at it and I’d probably be terrible at the combat one. I can be there for the sake of being an extra body, but will probably be dead before I know how to react. It starts shortly after 3/23 and I’m trying to figure out if that means they hate college basketball or not.

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

2009-03-05T20:43:00.000-05:00

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.

Who's Got The Herb?

2009-03-03T18:39:00.000-05:00

The quest filter threw me off a bit when it first came out. I had thought I was a lot closer last week than I actually did. Thankfully, some free time this weekend plus an additional snow day due to a crazy storm that had me shoveling for hours allowed me to knock out a few. Did the Tozl-Ket-Whatever, both parts of Rag & Bone Man, Kennith’s Concerns on Saturday-Sunday. Since yesterday was technically ’bonus time’ being that I didn’t plan on being able to play, I thought I’d take care of a few more. I started out with Mourning’s End 1, and followed it with Mourning’s End 2 (which isn’t as bad as a lot make it seem). I think I died close to 40 times doing Summer’s End and capped it off with an easy one in Meeting History.

Just 4 left. Forgettable Tale, Path of Glouphrie, Spirits of the Elid and WGS. I’ll probably get those over the weekend sadly and not before. Weeknights are a little pressed for time the next few days. This month’s skill is Herblore, ugh. Gathering seconds and filling vials… I’ve been trying to come up with a plan of how to go about it, and I can’t make it click properly in my head. I have been saving all the herbs I’ve gotten for drops the past few weeks, but there’s not many. I’ve grown all the seeds I’ve had in my inventory as well. Short of buying seeds and slowly growing them at about 30 per hour, maybe getting me 3500xp/hr in Herblore, I don’t see anyway to really dig in and train this without losing lots of cash.

Skills like Woodcutting are easy, want to train? Then you go cut. Herblore just has so many aspects that don’t give any xp, that unlike saying buying essence and crafting them into runes for a profit, you just lose on. I didn’t think it was that bad last night until I realized what I had been doing wrong. I was figuring 24k per Ranarr seed, 6.3k per Ranarr and 6.2k per ppot (based on RS Wiki’s numbers). I spent about a half hour with a friend on Lunar gathering 400 Snape Grass, so that was free. With buying 400 Ranarrs, making into 400 ppots, I was thinking great, only a 40k loss in gp. What I had forgot (and luckily realized before buying anything) was the decant aspect. You make a (3) while only the (4) sells for 6.2k. Instead of selling 400 pots, you sell 300, which brings you to a 180k+ loss in gp, all for gathering only 35k Herblore xp.

Goraks and Star Flowers are seemingly cheap xp. However, I average around 10 Gorak claws per trip using a Bunyip and a full inventory of sharks. Say you bring 27 sharks, that’s about 21.6k gp or about 15 or so minutes of fishing your own. Add a few minutes for gathering the Star Flowers as well. For me, killing that many Goraks takes about 25 minutes, so that’s 45 or so minutes (or 30-35 and 21.6k gp) to make 10 Magic essence for a total of 1.3k Herblore xp.

I’ve got over 700 nests stored up from my kingdom and WC, just waiting for me to get 81 Herblore. Its getting there from 67 that I’m having an issue with. I’ve got about 150 each of Grimy Dwarf Weed and Lantadyme saved up, which I can’t use yet. Is there some glaringly obvious aspect of this that I’m missing? I guess I could do Fleshcrawlers, but that’s still about 25 mins grabbing 27 herbs to make roughly 3k xp.

I’m going to use about 3 weeks of Penguin Points on this, but I hate doing that being that I like that saving me money in either Construction or Summoning or trips to the Abyss while Runcrafting. I wish there was a mini-game for this…

Bank on it

2009-02-26T07:19:00.000-05:00

I’ve been asked several times from friends if they can borrow certain items for Clue Scrolls. I lend those things out all the time. I don’t really ever think anything of it but last night I was asked a question which explained why I was always lending them out. The reason was a common thing we deal with daily which can be more frustrating than Rat Catchers and harder to deal with than the Chaos Elemental (would have said Corporeal Beast, but that’s all hearsay being I haven’t fought it yet). Who’s the vicious culprit? Bankspace.

With the tabbed bank categories and additional space updates we’ve had in the past year, it’s a little easier to deal with, but it seems that for every additional space there’s about 50 additional items released. I’m not really big on writing guides, I always feel like there’s someone out there who can do it better, but I thought maybe I’d just share how I take care of this issue. Definitely not something to be followed by letter, I’m sure I’m doing things wrong as well, also the customizable tabs let each person fit their bank to their own personality, which is pretty cool. But here’s how I have my bank set up and maybe there’s something in here you can use.

Tabs - I use the max amount possible and have them set up into certain categories that make things a little bit easier for me to find. I picture it as a dresser I have in my room. You got a t shirt drawer and you got a sock drawer. For me, it seems every dresser I’ve ever had, the top drawer has always been my junk drawer. Same with my bank. This is a place I keep a lot of things I grab on the fly and don’t particularly fit into any other category I have. This is where I keep my food, cooked and raw, buckets of sand, flax, seaweed, pineapples, logs, berries, spy notebook, adze, picks, axes, etc. This might make a little more sense after I go through my other categories.

Herbs/seeds - This is where I keep all my various Herblore supplies and seeds. Since I do a lot of herb farming runs, it kind of made sense to keep them together. This includes my mortar & pestle as well as any seconds I’ve been gathering. Since Herblore requires a lot of banking, it just makes sense to have everything together, including vials of water, just for convenience sake. Also, since a herb run is usually very quick, I keep my Ectophial and Explorer’s Ring there as well. I use these for herb runs more than anything, but if I need it for something else, I know exactly where to find them.

Runes/one touch teles - Since there’s so many runes in the game, they might as well get their own tab. If I’m going to be using magic, I know exactly where to go. I also keep my teletabs and pure essence here. This is quick for Runecrafting as well. If I’m not using the Abyss, my altar teletabs are right here. If I’m making teletabs, then I can quick grab the runes and store the made tabs. My Seal of Passage is right next to my Astral teletabs as a reminder that I need it. Most of my altar teletabs are used for star hunting, so this prevents being out at Keldagrim, finding out I have to go to Lunar Isle, but not having my seal on me.

Jewelry - I keep all my rings (exception of Explorers), necklaces, amulets, bracelets together. If someone says “Bring a ring of….” I know where it is. This is helpful for another reason too, by keeping my teleport jewelry together, I can free up spaces by only using one at a time. Having a (2), (3), (1), (4) and uncharged of say a glory, is a waste of space. You’d be surprised how much space you can make available and keep open by not having five different Rings of Dueling with random charges throughout the bank. It also makes it easier for grabbing all of them to recharge.

Combat - Pretty much all my magic equipment is runes which is already taken care of. I don’t really mage as cb, so my robes are tucked away in a closet in my POH. I have two separate tabs for melee and range. This makes it a little easier going from one to another. All my arrows, bows and dhides are in the same place and my armor (including Varrock 3) and melee weapons are in another. Pretty self-explanatory.

Pots - Its like a medicine cabinet. All my pots in the same place. Same with the teleport jewelry, making sure your pots are at the same dosage frees up space. Why have a (3) and a (1) when you can have a (4). This is probably the most common issue I’ve seen. I’ve watched people free up about 20 spots just by decanting their pots, which is even easier now since they’ve added that option at the Herblore guy at the GE.

Clothes - Hunting outfits, shade robes, builder outfit, bomber cap, etc. If I need to wear it, and its not range/melee/cb related its in here. This lets me keep track of sets from randoms so that when I have the proper Construction level to store more and more in my POH, I’m not eating up 3 spaces because I’m missing 1 piece of a 4 piece set.

Clue Items - Mith platelegs, rune platebody, sextant, watch, chart, addy 2h, blue vambs, ect. Since I don’t use a rune plate or blue vambs in cb, only for clues, they’re here. This might be different for you depending on a level. I hate scavaging everywhere because I need to laugh in front of Jokkul, everything is there for the quick grab, to get the clue done with, get the reward, then work on getting another one.

That’s how my odd little brain functions. Like I said, everyone’s different. This way I can see what I’m using and what’s sitting there, useless. If you haven’t used it in a year, chances are, you don’t need it. Here’s some quick tips:

House - keep barely used outfits from randoms, holiday items, armor etc in your house. This frees up a lot of space and its what you’ve been working on construction for, isn’t it? Also if you can get it from free from your house (hammer, chisel, saw, etc), then you don’t need it taking up that precious bankspace. Also, use all your quest obtained books on your bookcase. This gets them out of your bank and if you ever need them, they are always here, even if you take one from the bookcase and lose it, it will always be there again.

Leprechaun - don’t waste bankspace on all your farming items when you have this wee lil fella to carry them for you.

Pots/teles - keep them combined.

Quest item - not going to use again, and its easy to get back again? - drop it. Not to say drop that greegree that was a pain to get, but if all you have to do is talk to Joe down the street, and its free, then don’t sweat it.

Go see the Wise Old Man in Draynor - he’ll see what F2P quest items you no longer need.

Haven’t used it in forever? - I tend to side with the xp, but some might like the cash. Just realized you have 100 oak logs sitting there since you were a lvl 30, 3 years ago? Take a few minutes to get a little FM xp or Con or even just sell them. Use that cash on something you want to use, plus since you already have money in the bank, and its stackable, you’ll find that empty space maybe even more valuable than the cash you got from it.

So that’s it. Also let it be known that I’m a complete pack-rat, yet can still have some free space available. That blurite sword isn’t going anywhere because I know I can never get it back if I get rid of it. Those purple sweets and firelights still sit there idly. If anything, I hope that helped at least someone.