Geoneering

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!

Ok, Breathe

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.

Bring It!

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.

Burning Down the House

The December “Behind the Scenes” is out, and it looks like there’s two new Achievement Diaries! I don’t know what it is about these things, but I love doing them. The Varrock one motivated me so much to work on my skills and the Karamja one forced me to get my cb up. The rewards are great. Even though the Lumbridge one was low-leveled, the Cabbage-port is great for farming runs, and the run-replenish is great when you don’t want to waste a strange fruit or a Terrorbird scroll.

Last week, questing seemed to take first priority. I can use new Lunar skills thanks to Dream Mentor. I also did Land of the Goblins, Mountain Daughter, My Arm’s Big Adventure, Olaf’s Quest and Dealing with Scabaras. Dealing with Scabaras allowed me to keep my streak alive of dying during every desert quest. I always use guides and the two I was reading mentioned nothing about fighting the priest who deals with multi-combat, poison and disease. They seemed to focus on the fighting of the Scarab, which is lvl 206, but a pretty straight forward-easy fight. I also didn’t notice that instead of withdrawing just a few thousand gp, I had all my cash on me. I lost about $3M which I had been saving for Con & Summoning as well as my Beserker Ring, Dragon Boots, etc. I’ve never understood the system RS uses as to what you keep when you die, but I held onto my Dragon Legs, which are considerably less than a Beserker Ring. It would always confuse me too as to why I’d hold on to a shark opposed to something like Boots of Lightness. That was kind of a bummer, I didn’t make it back in time to retrieve them. It’s alright though, I just shook it off. It’s a game, it’ll be fun. Nothing to cry over, just get back up and do it again. I spent some time fishing to make some more money to get some items back and the rest will come in time. The thing that got me was that after losing all my cash, I had to make money to re-buy my skillcape. It’s weird that you just can’t get that back by talking to the person, like you usually do with quest items. So now I have my cape back and two hoods in the bank. Weird, but whatever.

I have around 15 quests left to do. Not a lot, but not a small amount. I really dislike doing them, so the motivation comes and goes. When I have it, I need to strike while it’s hot. This week I haven’t done any, I need a break. I also hate leaving a quest in the middle of it, so with just a few hours to play after work and a lot of that time dedicated to my daily chores, it hasn’t seemed worth it.

December is Firemaking month in the clan. I need to redeem myself for my dreadful showing during last month’s Farming. I think I only got around 250k xp. All I had were a lot of low level seeds and didn’t get any good ones from my kingdom until 2 days before the end. Figures, huh? I’ve been burning my stock of maples, but I’ve also been trying to stockpile some yews/mages. I don’t mind Woodcutting as much as I used to. As long as I can find an empty world. I usually cut at tree gnome. There’s a mage tree there, as well as the mage I have planted at my farming spot, plus a few yews and the bank is very close. It’s amusing how the xp level of skills vary so much. I’ve already beat my xp from last month, and it’s only the 5th. Whereas it would be the equivalent of months running to the abyss over and over making runes.

I love that the new quest gives 400k xp in any skill. I’m really looking forward to being able to do it. I’m not sure what I would use it on. It would save a lot of money using it for Construction or Summoning. The time it will save for Runecrafting though makes it seem more valuable. That would more than double the xp I have now at lvl 63.

In all the times of checking my kingdom for nests and receiving them as randoms while Woodcutting, there’s one thing I never understood; why are there rings in them? I can understand the seeds and the eggs, but is there also a collection of lost fingers? I don’t mind the normal golden rings, they can be used in Summoning, but its so disappointing when you get a nest and you’re like “Awesome! Nest! Dang, Sapphire Ring.” I guess I could enchant them, but I just seem to keep those things around for Treasure Trails. I have plenty of Dueling Rings, I never use Rings of Recoil, I don’t even know what an enchanted Ruby ring does and Rings of Life drive me insane. I hate it that there’s a chance I might die and all of a sudden I’m tele’d out, when I wasn’t close to death or was simultaneously clicking to eat. 10% of your HP is still easy to deal with when not fighting anything major. I don’t know, I think it’s a control issue I have.

I also, finally, got my Prayer to 70 thanks to some Steel/Iron assignments from Duradel. I’m going to use my pingu points this week for Slayer. The update mentioned needing to kill a Skeletal Wyvern and I know you need 72 for that. Currently I’m only 1k xp from 71, so that should make it easier. Revenge is going to be sweet! Ever since I was lvl 60 or so and mistakenly wandered into that Ice Cave, I’ve had a bone to pick with that thing. Vengeance has been my motivation for Slayer, to kill the Skeletal Wyvern. I’m ok with that. We’ve all had those instances when we were lower levels, and you say lose your Rune Chestplate which you saved so hard for and spent 3 hours in a bank yelling “Buying Rune Plate!!!!!” because it was pre-GE and late at night so not a lot of people were on. I’d love it if you guys shared some of your stories like that, so feel free to!

This weekend, clan trip to Fishing Trawler and the goal is for Path of Glouphrie. I’m not going to have a lot of playing time, so nothing too high. Going to watch the De La Hoya/Pacquiao fight at the boss’s house, so that should be a good one. No idea who to root for. I guess my heart’s with De La Hoya and my money’s on Pacquiao. Eagles go up to the Meadowlands, ugh. Its ok though. The Phillies are World Champions.

We all have our little things that motivate us. For me, recently it’s been hiscores. I know it might seem petty, but I love watching my rank change. I like seeing how positions fluctuate week to week. I love the contrast between the member and free to play skills. I got a lot of levels this weekend, I just happened to be close to a few and banged them all out at once. I love how 74 Farming ranks you at 27,000 but 74 Woodcutting doesn’t even get you under 500,000. I planted my first Magic Trees with the use of a garden pie. As cool as they look fully grown, I kind of think they look awesome as half grown saplings. Can’t wait to get the xp from checking health later on tonight.

I’m kind of disappointed with a few recent clan events. Our Bandos trip this weekend was cancelled due to only about four people showing up. Only a few have been taking part in training Agility as well. Even though I really don’t like cb that much, I try to make all the trips for a number of reasons. First, the more the better. With a large group, chances are you’ll be perfectly safe. You can stay for multiple kills and if anyone needs something, everyone’s willing to share. Second, I’ve done some things that I wouldn’t have done on my own. New music is always a plus. I’m just willing to try anything new, as long as I know its safe. Last, I just like to hang out. Everyone’s friends, its more like a group in that sense, opposed to other clans that are rank and cb level based for Clan Wars or what not.

It seems skilling kind of takes a back burner sometimes. People get upset no one shows up for cb trips, but no one even cares about even a mass skilling event. A lot of skills people find boring and much improved when you have good company. And think, if you do it now you won’t have to do it later. It’s just disheartening when you come up with a seemingly good idea, and no one pays much attention. At least just feign interest…

Ok sorry, gripe over. I’ve been really struggling with bankspace recently. I still haven’t done the circus yet because I know I have no room for whatever items it gives me. Next month is Crafting and I’ve been hoarding all my uncuts and battlestaves for then. That should free up some space, but still have to wait about 2 weeks to do it. I see they’ve come out with the follow up to the Wildy quest today. I’m sure that’ll end up taking even more bankspace. With so many things added just in the past couple months, I wouldn’t be surprised to see an expansion on the horizon. I guess the real basis of it is that I need to get my Construction up. When I got 60 Hunting this weekend it left me only having 2 skills left in the 50s. 58 Runecrafting and 57 Construction. I keep my RC up so I can use my tears for Construction. It kills me spending an arm and a leg without having any real way around it. I guess I could just use limestone, but where’s the fun in that?

Phils sweep the Brewers! As great as it is that they are tied for the wildcard, I would rather they won the division and once again the Mets fail to make the playoffs. Let’s see if that can happen, ok? It was sad to see the Jets fail to beat the cheating empire that is the Patriots. It’s awesome when your team plays on Monday nights, but it makes Sunday seem a little off. So tonight I’m going to hunker down, play a little RS. Watch The Sarah Connor Chronicles then watch my Eagles destroy those wretched Cowboys in their own home. Go birds!

Holiday, Worlds Away

Its the start of a holiday weekend here in the USA. The unoffical end to summer holiday of Labor Day. All that really matters to me is that I have Monday off and am goiing to be spending the weekend at the beach. I hope everyone has their BBQ's fired up and ready to celebrate :)

The new quest, All Fired Up, has people firemaking like crazy. It seems like everyone has now gone pyromaniac. I have to say, its a little contageous. FM has always been one of my lower skills, with no real rewards from training it, I would rather either fletch my logs from kingdom, use them for Construction, or in a pinch, just sell them. The idea of the beacon lighting for some reason really appeals to me. I think it would be fun racing from one to another loading and lighting logs. A friend did point out, however, that, what's the point in a beacon system if it's one person running from beacon to beacon lighting them. I kind of have to agree with that.

Anyways, I figure I have to bite the bullett sooner or later, so I've locked myself away in Tai Bwo Wanna (also frees up a bankspace from using my trading sticks) to cut/burn mahogany logs. I'll probably do this till I get sick of it and demand escape. I want to get my Woodcutting to 75 (71 now) so I can cut my own Magic trees from farming. When motivation strikes to train two skills you really don't enjoy doing, you jsut have to run with it.

Kind of a slow week, got my 1700 total levels fireworks a couple days ago. That was pretty fun. September 1 starts my clan's Agility month. I love Agility, although my level is kind of low in it. I have a ton of tickets I need to cash in. This competition should motivate me to get a little more agile :) I definitely want to get it to 80 so I can use the shortcut in Taverly Dungeon to the Hellhounds, I hate having to walk all the way around. Its weird how motivating being lazy can be. I'll be back after the holiday, have an awesome weekend!