Metropoliscape

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

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?

Christmas came a little late!

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.