Level, Level

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

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!

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

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...

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...

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

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.