A Fistful of GP

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sitting in the waiting room ahhhaa...

"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.

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

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.

Daily Grind

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

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

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!

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.