Monday, June 16, 2008

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury...

Okay, may not have been the smartest thing I've ever done, but I've put Boombaye's situation (In anonymous terms of course) on the tip.it forums to see what a neutral audience would think of it, since I noticed most of his accusers are Blessings members (or ex-members), and Tim's groupies.

And Blessings, the odds are kinda stacked against you guys in it.

Here's the link the thread

Honestly though, I think both parties were at fault here, if you ask me.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

One (Not Eight) Legged Freaks

Let me repeat that, I hate turoth, I hate them, I hate them, I HATE them. Stupid one legged freaks.

Trying to take advantage of the new Slayer points system, I went about doing slayer tasks to stack up the 4 tasks needed to start getting points. I forgot any old slayer master would do, and foolishly asked Chaeldar for a task, and was promptly punished for that when she gave me 140+ turoth task.

The leaf bladed spear is a hopeless weapon, much like many other spears. I haven't got any problem with it only being able to give either controlled or defence exp, but it can't hold a candle up to a whip, losing in all departments from speed to damage. And its two handed.

I refuse range or mage the bloody things since there isn't a safe spot, and the only melee weapon that will hurt them is a leaf bladed spear. I wasted close to 3 hours on that task...

Mazchana on the other hand, understood that I had only one week of vacation left to play, and gave me much shorter ones, short to the point I can't remember what they were.

Got a grand total off...20 points now. Which is to say not much. Did get a good look at the new slayer monster's makeovers. Jellies now have the remains of their unfortunate victims floating inside them.




My level ups from my little flirt with Slayer. Pushing me ever closer to that not-so-exclusive-now club of 3 digit combat!

Ranarrs are dropping (Bloody hell), and my ultra secret crop is probably back on the rise now, so I'll go back to that.

I just realized, although Fishing gave me more time to post, it caused another problem. I had nothing to post ABOUT.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Smoking Kills...Duh...

Upon finding out about the new Slayer points system that was recently put in place, I finally managed to overcome my loathing and state of inertia when it comes to quest, and do Smoking Kills.

Moment I caught wind of it being able to swap the points for Slayer exp, I could already hear some veteran Slayers whining in the forums (RSOF, Tip.it as well if it hadn't crashed already) about how the skill has been nerfed, same way the Farmers did when Vinesweeper was released. As well as see all the Slayer exp rolling in for me.

This time round, its your usual save-the-damsel-in-distress quest, where you have to save the sister of a woman named Sumona ( who looks ALOT like the Devourer) from a smoking well in Pollnivneach.

As usual, you have to play dumb and follow along with the evil plan like in Regicide, despite it being very obvious that Sumona is the Devourer, and the game doesn't allow you to not help her, or throw your cat at her instead, which would probably cause her to implode on herself. Which would be quite funny.

As you prepare to leap headfirst into the well, you are stopped by a cat (Who is, like everyone else in the town, named Ali), telling you your ass is fried if you set foot in the dungeon since

Smoke + Banshees - (Facemask or Earmuffs) = Dead Adventurer

And that you have to find a Slayer master to teach you how to put the facemask and earmuffs together so that you don't die instantaneously in there. Of course there are a couple of problems.

One being the fact that he's been dead a LONG time, and the other being that his tomb is situated in the middle of bloody nowhere in the desert. East of the Agility Pyramid to be exact.

So off you go to dig him up. Here he is, goes by the name of Catolax.



Once consulted, you put the two together, head down the well, kill a banshee, pick up what appears to be its head, before using it to break a barrier to meet a...bigger banshee.




Well, its bigger than a normal banshee, thats all I can say for it really. Not that hard to beat on its own.





Bloody thing has an annoying ability to knock you flat though, as seen in the above. I didn't take any screenshots of the rest of the scarab archers suddenly turning on me as well, since I was too busy swearing and trying to stay alive. I went from 40 hp to 8 after one volley of arrows. The bastards. Oh yes, if you do try this quest, please don't turn off your Protect From Range prayer immediately after the fight, because the bloody archers can fire one last volley at you after you kill the Banshee Mistress. They left me wondering why the hell my Hitpoints meter read 5 instead of 50.

Anyway, the Devourer's scheme is quite obvious now, her twin sister is actually her, and she blows up a book nearby which would have give you total control over the archers, before incinerating them like the cannon fodder they are.

Killing big mama Banshee apparently freed Catolax's soul as well, so you didn't totally mess up by helping out the Devourer unwittingly yet again. She isn't allowed you blow you up by some covenant of the gods since she already promised to reward you for saving her "sister".

The reward being the new Slayer system I was talking about. Oh yes, she's now a new Slayer Master too. Thought it would be Catolax when I first heard about a new Slayer Master being released.








PS : For Fishing, just surpassed 5.5 mil exp.

Monday, June 2, 2008

I'm Back, And Better Than Ever!

Yes, I'm back, and no, I haven't quit. I've been horribly busy lately, I barely even update my regular blog that often any more. Unlike Tim, I have no bloody no idea how to juggle schoolwork, and still play a decent amount. Maybe I should get around to asking him one of these days in school.

Anyway...

I've given up on going for a Hunting Skillcape, at least for the time being. Too much attention required, more than I can give. Besides, I was getting tired of hopping around for an empty world for red chins.

I've decided to go back to Fishing, which admittedly, is rather boring. Okay fine, very boring. My DS helps stave it off, but can barely last 1k monks without breaking down and doing something else. I've got about 60k or so monks till I hit 99, though I have no idea how long that'll take.

I dabbled in powerfishing for a while at Shilo, but trust me, the rate that stupid fishing spot moves around, and the remoteness of the place, and the lack of too much profit just about cancels out the advantage the slightly faster exp rate. For me at least.

On the bright side though, there is money. Lots of it. But I think the market for raws might have cooled off a bit, though they are still going at 450 each on the Exchange.

Reached 90 Fishing today




Future posts will probably be longer, given how I'm fishing, so I'll have *A lot* of free time.

Friday, May 2, 2008

We Are Currently Experiencing Technical Difficulties...

In the morale and willpower department. I might have misread the various guides I've read about raising Hunter to 99, seeing as how I *think* they all say it takes two weeks to a month at most to max it out. Either I misread when it was supposed to be two months, or when they meant two weeks, they meant playing 8 hours a day like some people...

Anyway, kinda got with Hunter after hitting 66 Hunter at the Red Chinchompa areas.



Its good money alright, since you can't retrieve Chinchompas like arrows, but its so hard to find an empty spot to yourself during peak hours. While my timezone makes it easier for me since its morning where I am when the Americans are all asleep (Or should be at least), its near impossible to find a trapping spot all to yourself, even when you hop 5 or 6 worlds during peak hours.

Tim planned on bringing a crossbow to shoot down other people's Red Chins if he isn't getting enough, but I talked him out of it, partially anyway. Its an idiotic thing to do, like ranging every Fire Giant in a room so the other guy can't get any. He now promises to fire only if the other guy is an asshole. Which, unfortunately, are pretty common at the Red Chin spots....

Right now, I have three options

1. Continue with Red Chins and battle for a spot during peak hours

2. Level up to 67 and do Black Salamanders, but there's close to 0 profit in that. Heard they're good for barrows though.

3. Just go back to training Fishing. Again, quite boring, but at least I'll have the time to do other things.

I'll probably good with Option 2 or 3 though, at least until I can lay 5 traps in one go at 80 Hunter.

Anyway, my usual remedy for boredom is normally killing stuff, so I grabbed my gear and headed for Chaeldar, who, for once, didn't give me a stupid, troublesome task for once. A hundred or so Dagannoth, easy and convenient enough, and I had the luck to get 2 Snapdragon seeds while I was at it. Inching toward 65 Slayer, and Dust Devils!!



An Attack level up halfway through the task which I didn't expect.

This May's Behind the Scenes has a couple of interesting features lined up, most notably the new Quick Chat system. Apparently, it is a list of selected common phrases that can be quickly clicked on for your character to say, which would help a lot in games which need quick communication like Castle Wars. Unfortunately though, if it selects the most commonly recurring phrases in CW, it would probably look like this...

--------
1. NOOB!!
2. SAFER NOOB!!
3. PRAYER NOOB!!
4. POTTING NOOB!!
5. ANCIENT NOOB!!
6. STOP KILLING ME WITH OUR CATAPULT NOOB!!
7. STOP BLOWING UP OUR OWN BARRICADES NOOB!!
8. I've got the flag, cover me!
9. Enemy flag bearer is in the tunnels/middle/battlements
10. Everyone attack *username*, he/she has the flag!!
--------

Another update I found rather interesting is the random statistics one, which will spout useless but funny nonetheless facts, like how many guards are killed in Varrock Square a day. Not sure how many that would be, but it'll probably be a *LOT*.

As stated in the Garden of Tranquility quest, your average guard has a lifespan of about 5 minutes.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

>Insert Title Here<

First off, I'd like to say that amazingly, there IS a market for grey chinchompas, and that I really regret blowing up my first 100 at Pest Control.

Anyway, trapped my way up to 58 Hunter on Grey Chins, before being hit by an overwhelming sense of BOREDOM!! Guess zeal can only take one so far... Hunting is more click intensive than I thought, given how Chinchompas never learn that box traps are a BAD thing, combined with the fact I need to watch out for my turf from marauders, since Chins can't be shared like Fishing. Perhaps a change in target is a good idea right now.

Coincidentally at the same time, the new minigame Fist Of Guthix had been released, and after hearing good reviews about it from my friend and brother, I decided it would be a good break from Hunter/Skilling overall.

Guthix apparently really does select guardians of his areas randomly, the one in the Fist Of Guthix being a giant...Earwig... He should have stuck to giant snakes.

Objective of the game is simple. You get paired up with a random person in the waiting room



And then you take turns being the hunter and the hunted. As the hunted, you have to run around holding a charging stone to collect charges around the arena, and since the stone is two handed and goes in your weapon slot, you are pretty helpless in this form, and your objective is to last as long as possible to collect as many charges as possible until you are killed by the hunter.

As hunter, just frag the hunted ASAP before he/she collects too many charges. Person with more charges at the end of two rounds wins, and gets a certain amount of FOG tokens, based on how many more charges you got, and how balanced your total level is. An anti-pure measure perhaps?

I heard that free runes were given out at FOG, and I thought to myself "This would surely kill mage training in any other method." Two matches in, I realized it wouldn't. Why?? Because most decent players would hide in the safehouses from time to time, so they can't be attacked. And also, the arena being crowded leads to an even bigger problem, which is finding your target in the first place! Everyone normally goes to the center to collect charges since the rate is WAY faster there, but since everyone is standing in one area, one has to scroll down countless names before finding your target.

Random pairing also has no regard when it comes to your combat level. You could be level 3, and get paired up with a level 138. I got two people with combat under 30. I got 4k charges from each of them before they forfeited. Then I got paired with a 120. It was not cool to get fragged so fast.

All in all though, its a pretty OK game this time from Jagex, and the rewards look okay as well.

Monday, April 14, 2008

On the next one!

I've decided to go after a Hunting skillcape now. It seems fairly straightforward after watching a couple of videos and reading a few guides, and it doesn't seem to take too long to reach, from what I've read. Plus, there's the red chinchompas to look forward to, there's alot of profit in those.

At 56 Hunter currently and hunting grey chinchompas. Just finished blowing up the 150 I caught from 53 Hunter at Pest Control, which I regret doing, since one only gets half the exp than normal when at Pest Control since the nerf. Still it got me to 62 range, and I managed to hit 700+ damage altogether in a single match, a feat I have never done before. Is this alot??

Also learnt how to merchant properly on the G.E, made 150k off in my first deal. Grandmama would be so proud so have a new generation of profiteers to take over from her.

Tried my hand out at Bounty Hunter today, came agonizingly close to maging a full rune warrior to death, but he got away. Had no more luck after that one...

By the way, is there a market for grey Chins, I don't mind selling them off instead if the money good.

I know I'm writing as eloquently as a 10 year old writing now, forgive me, Hunting is more click intensive than I thought...