Nyeh.

I haven't been touching Runescape lately. I'm considering cancelling my membership for a while, after the Halloween event.

I'm just too busy with other stuff. Like College and the new friends I made there. They're awesome. I've never had friends I could relate to so well in real life before. It's great.

Another thing eating my time is my Mitadake High comic. I started it around March earlier this year, and since then it's become more and more of something I want to make great. I've spent a lot of effort making it good, plus one of my College friends is going to be helping me out with the sequel. She's already helped me out greatly with character designs and plot twists, so I'm certain that the sequel is going to be bigger, better, longer and just generally more awesome than the first.
It'd mean a lot to me if you'd take a look at it, if you haven't done so.
Here's the link to the first page. I'd appreciate any comments, as it's great motivation for it.

Incidentally, I'm going to MCM, the London Expo tomorrow. Both America and Japan have Anime/Video Game conventions all year long, dotted around the place, but England only really has the one. As is obvious from the name, it's in London, which is a five hour drive from where I live.
I was originally going to go down there on the Train for a few days with College friends, but that plan was dashed.
Thankfully, my Dad offered to take me there on the Sunday, which is better than not going at all.
I'll be meeting up with several online friends there too, including the members from the Steam Group I'm in, the Ren-O Rangers (I know two of them in real life, they're the aforementioned College friends).
Yeah, so I've got my wallet full, so it's going to be awesome

Name change

Thanks to the recent update, I was finally able to ditch my old username.
I wasn't able to change to my preferred "Icethefrostycat", thanks to the character limit, so I lost the "frosty". It's better than nothing I guess, although considering the current trend of blessings member changing their usernames to Bless(whatever), I may change to BlessIce when I get the chance.

I haven't been playing Runescape much lately, thanks to College and the like, but I was able to reach the 70 milestone for Farming...

Okay I lied.

Contrary to my last post, I do have topics to discuss with you tonight. Unfortunately, none of them relate to Runescape so if that's all you're here for, you can bugger right off.
Firstly, I got my GCSE results back a few weeks ago. I realize that I'm very late in informing you all, but I am a procrastinative bastard, after all.
Anyways, my results were as follows;
-Additional Science: C
-Art: C
-English: C
-Graphics: C
-IT: B
-Maths: C
-Media Studies: C
-Science: B
(Yeah, two different types of science :T)
Happily, this was more than enough to get me into College, in which, as I've been mentioning every now and then, I am taking an Animation & Games Design course.

So today I went into College for the first time. Technically I don't start lessons till Monday. Instead, I went in for "initiation" purposes. We were given a talk about the ins and outs of the course, how the timetable would be laid out, that sort of stuff etc.
Now, when I was in high-school, there was practically no-one that shared my taste in video games/anime etc. There were a couple of gamers here and there, but nobody I could relate to.
This, however, is thankfully a thing of the past. Given the nature of the course, it's only natural that people with similar interests to me would be there. And indeed there were. I've made friends with a few people already.

So a great course, £30 a week (paid for by EMA) and some really awesome people to be learning with.
I'm thinking the next two years are going to be fantastic.

I have nothing to say to you people!

Nothing! Nada! Zilch! Zero!

The Two Zeldas

I was idlely working on a page of my comic in Photoshop last night, when I received a message on MSN from Matman, asking me to stop ignoring him in Runescape, which was rather odd, considering I wasn't on Runescape. He insisted that I was, but I brushed it off as an attempt to get me online to play Castle Wars with him. He continued to persist, even after I told him I'd seen through his lies, so I logged in on a noob account to see if he was telling the truth. Despite the fact that I didn't show up on the noob's friend list (since I have Private Chat on), there I was, in Blesschat.
This was rather shocking and I started to panic. Had I been hacked? No...couldn't have been. Only someone who knew about Blessings could have done it, if that was the case. Plus, they'd have no reason to go into the chat even if they did.
Still, I went and changed my password, just in case.

I decided to investigate further and tried logging in on Zelda. Strangely enough, it worked. I logged into Blesschat to see this.

The clanchat showed up as having two Zelda3908s.
However, when I entered the chat, Matman was only able to see one of me, or at least, until he left and re-entered.
It seems that people in the chat already when I enter only see one Zelda, but people who enter after me see two of me.

It's a rather amusing glitch, and both Mat and Tim have been fooled by it.
I think I might know how it happened, too.
Earlier, I'd been sitting in my room, smelting cannonballs and watching videos. I noticed my laptop was getting very warm, so I turned my deskfan on to try and cool it down, but I was too late and the laptop shut itself off to avoid overheating.
I decided to give it some time to cool down, so I went and did other things, not bothering to resume the smelting when I came back. It wasn't until Mat alerted me that I found out.

I wonder how long it'll take Jagex to fix this. Probably not long now, considering the fact that they're watching me :O

Okay, you can stop laughing now.

How did this happen? Seriously?
I've had this blog for over a year and I've only just noticed just now that I mis-spelled the title "The blog of an average Runescaper" as "Runscaper"

Come, did none of you notice this? Why didn't you guys tell me?
Way to make me feel like an idiot -.-

Q & A

Last night, Jagex released the answers for their latest Q&A.
The questions were a lot more interesting this time around, and quite a few of the answers surprised me.
Not only that, but Gerhard even confirmed severals projects that they're currently working on.
* New skill for f2p
* "Noob-free" worlds
* Potential console version of Runescape (...I'd buy it :D)
* Support for video-making
* Potential Runescape film (Maybe if it was animated, but I don't know if a live-action film would be any good)
* RS-Classic worlds (With cheats enabled o.O?)
* Reducing the amount of CPU used to play
* Changing your player name (YES!)
* Viewing statistics about your character
* Voice-acting for NPCs?
* Freeing up usernames/increasing the length a username can be

This is quite the list. Most of the things listed are something to look forward to.
A new f2p skill hasn't been seen since the dawn of Runescape 2 and I'm very interested in finding out what it is, considering it would have to work mainly in the f2p area. Could it possibly have to do with the empty menu space?
Speaking of which, a screenshot taken from the Jagex website posted on Runehq a short while back showed a sign-post where the summoning tab used to be. Suggestions as to what it could be included a Satnav-esque system, a friend locator, the world map being moved to a tab (Better not be) etc.
It may have to do with the new skill, but then again, it may not. We'll just have to wait and see.

The potential of worlds without low-level players sounds really enticing, but then you have to remember that it's not just low level players that are complete assholes; and it wouldn't really be so good for training, considering a lot of people would be there. It would be good for mini-games though, I'm sure.

A console version of Runescape sounds like a pretty damned good idea. However, I wouldn't want it to just be the ability to access the game from a console. That would be lame and it wouldn't work.
What I'd want, would be a complete rebuild of the game. Most of the quests would have to be streamlined a bit, and less focused on item collecting. Speaking of which, considering that there's over 150 quests, I don't think putting them all into a console version would be such a good idea. It should be limited to the best of them; the ones that unlock new areas, special items or just have a really good concept that would work better on a console (I'm looking at you, Ratcatchers >:L)
Interaction with other players would work on a Fable 2-esque basis, where the players are all there, but you can't really see them. You can still talk to them and chat and trade, but they wouldn't act as NPC's so they don't create spaces that you can't walk in.
Skills would have to be redesigned entirely, as a console version of the game is NOT suited for the intense grinding the java game has, but I'm drawing a blank as to what it could be

I'm really looking forwards to name changing and the ability to view statistics. I've been stuck with "Zelda3908" for far too long and I really regret naming my character that, especially as I get so many irritating comments on it.

I periodically check my levels, even though I know what they are, because I like to look at the record of what I've accomplished. I just know, that if they let you see records about your character, I'd be checking them all the time. I wonder if it'll include your playtime. That, I -have- to see

Jagex are watching me.

A few days ago, I decided that my character picture in the sidebar needed an update, so I took a screenshot and cropped it. I decided to do something about the whip, seeing as, as I pointed out in the shoutbox, it cannot hold itself together with nothing.
So I gave it a small edit to make it look like it was held together with some sort of magic, which looks pretty neat, if you ask me.

A few days passed. I noticed an update yesterday, so I logged in to check it out. I'd only glanced over the details, so I knew the whip had an update animation, but I didn't realize it's appearance had also changed, so I was mildly surprised to see the jarring spikes lining it. I was momentarily annoyed, considering I had just uploaded the picture, but it wasn't a problem, really. Aside from being white the spikes looked pretty good and the whip now doesn't defy the laws of physics.
It looks a lot better now, and I like the new attack animations. Really, the only thing I dislike about this update is the fact they didn't update the weaker Scimitars. I can't stand inconsistency like this

If there really are Jagex Mods reading my blog, I'd appreciate if you'd reveal yourselves :D

One year

As of today, my blog has been around for a whole year. In that time, I have made so much progress that it's surprised even myself. Just to compare the progress, I've made a side by side comparison of my levels then, and my levels now.
668 levels, in 365 days. That's just under two levels per day on average.
It'd be nice to say that it was solely my own hard work (and a lot of it was), but there is no way I could have done so well without the motivation I received from Blessings.

Some time last year, I'd caught wind of the Sailing skill rumour, so I decided to go looking for the image. I was searching on Google Images. Something caught my eyes. I don't remember exactly what it was, but after I'd gotten a better look at it, I clicked the back button, but not before I'd gotten a glimpse of what was written on the page. I intended to continue my search for the "screenshot", but curiosity got the better of me and I went back onto the page. The page, of course, being a post on "The Chronicles of Runescape". I thought it was really well written, so, seeing as I was doing nothing much at the time, I went back through the archives. As I read about his growth from one 99 skill to over ten, I was inspired. Until that point, maxing out a skill seemed like a distant dream.
Not only that, but blogging looked like fun, so I created my own blog and set myself a goal; 99 fishing.
Through the early stages though, it was a rather lonely experience. I used to hang out in the RuneHQ clanchat, but it wasn't that often that I could get involved in the conversation.
In addition to Tim's blog, I'd also started reading the blogs that he'd linked to. A good number of them were members of Blessings, the clan that Tim had mentioned. I'd never been in a clan before, but they all seemed like really nice people, so I signed up, and I am so glad I did.
I fit in right away, made friends with the members. The clanchat, with Tim and Mat's madness, really felt like somewhere I belonged.
I was still a good way below them all in terms of skills and combat though. Determined to catch up, I trained and skilled as hard as I could.
I received so much motivation for my trip to 99 fishing, doubly so during the period I raced Tiz. I made invaluable friends, all of whom pushed me to where I am today.

So basically, what I'm saying, is that I wouldn't be where I am today without Blessings.
So I thank thee; Timothy Gold, Matman496, Tiz Yeo, Demonmage386, Kkathy93, Kicky 300, Deamonloard9, Lilj122595, Green Coma, Atreyuafi, Fritje11, Tigerjones2 and many others (Don't worry if I've left your name off this, I still achknowledge your support if you gave it :D)

Thank you Blessings :)

Triple Digits

Huzzah!

I've reached the 100 Combat milestone at last...and um...well that's not too interesting a topic to discuss.
MOVING ON!

Jagex issued an update today.
The main release was the new Mini-game; Mobilising Armies (Of which I've tried the tutorial thus far. It's alright but it's not my type of thing).
Along with this was an update to the interface. While I'm usually one to welcome such changes, I can't help but feel it looks pretty ugly and unfitting. The right click menus have become really dark, the contrast between the new icons and the menu doesn't seem right and the new font reminds me of a calculator.
The summoning tab was removed (or at least, isn't counted as a tab anymore, instead being placed on the Summoning icon by the minimap) and the Achievement Diaries were given their own tab, which I regard as a useless move, seeing as there's only five or so diaries, which renders the tab entirely useless until the next one. The quest tab, at least, can still come in handy after completing all the quests. A new tab, for taking notes was also released. While it's not a bad move, it simply can't stand up to SwiftKit's note system (it's more functional). There's also a blank tab, which will apparently come into use sometime soon?
What could it be? Is it for a skill? Is it for a minigame?
While I think there's a good chance it's a skill (Dg pondered the possibility of Sailing), Jagex are always surprising us.
It must be something big, if they moved the Summoning tab before its release.

Monkfish

Remember how I got frustrated that Monkfish prices were very low for several months, so I sold my whole horde of them when during their next rise?

Yeeeeep, they completely spiked. Sure, there was no way to anticipate something like this, but I really should have been more patient. Something like this was inevitably going to happen at some point and I'm disappointed at the missed opportunity. On a side note, sharks have also gone up, so I'm going fishing again. I really can't focus on Runescape too much at the moment...

Of course that hasn't stopped me doing stuff.
Just stuff that isn't too interesting...

Death to all...and then some!

I've suddenly had an urge to go Slaying o.O
But of course, as Mat said, Slayer is useless without doing Smoking Kills.
So I did it. It was an alright quest, and the boss was fun too. I've gained a good amount of exp since then, so I'll probably keep using Slayer to train my combat o.O
In addition, I've also joined Mat, Tim, Dg and Tiz in utilising the 76k trick. Basically, we build up our Earning Potential by Smithing in Port Phasmatys, then proceed to kill each other for the drops. Not only do I make money by smithing cannonballs, you can make an even higher profit from the drops (Up to 5m from a Zaros Statuette).

While I haven't been lucky enough to get a drop much higher than 200k yet, I'm hoping to make a good amount of money this way (especially since I bought a Robin Hood hat on impulse!)
Things have been pretty uneventful for most of today, but then, it happened.
I was just lazing around, not doing anything exciting, when I hear an ancient spell being cast. I snap back to attention and saw a damage splash appear on my character. I tried to run to the bank, but I'd been frozen and couldn't move. Just as I thought I was done for, Mat dashed in and specced him with his Dragon Spear's special attack. He was momentarily stunned, giving me just enough time to make it into the bank. He proceeded to stalk the door, waiting for either me, Tiz or Mat to emerge. After much taunting and flaming, Tiz finally had enough. He ran out and hit him with his Dds, poisoning him. Despite some quick eating, Tiz's attacks became too much and he Teletabbed away, leaving us free to continue Smithing.


Mat also reached 99 Hp this morning, but uh...I don't really have anything to say that I haven't already said.
...
*dies*

Task Complete

Well done, Dg! Slayer must be one of the most gruellingly long skills to max out. Yesterday, Dg did just that. All I can really say is...well, congratulations xD

I've also raised my Total levels and Farming level to 1500 and 62, respectively.


Such a slight adjustment to my farming regime (an extra willow and two more curry trees) has really sped up my exp gain. To think that I had a measly level of 3 little under a year ago...

o.o

Well that was unexpected.
I'd heard of this, but I didn't really ever think about it.
The f2p total level limit is 1494. Apparently, Jagex seems to think Members deserve Milestone fireworks when they reach this level.
It's a pity though. The fireworks are supposed to be for when you reach a milestone. Sure, for f2p, it's an achievement, but not in Members. I didn't earn these fireworks.
It should be set up so that you only get them once you've maxed out all your f2p skills, rather than reaching the max f2p total.
But it's a minor, pointless detail, so it's not really a problem.

As you can see from the screenshot, I've been training Fletching...quite a bit. I'm at 76 already and still rising, whilst at the same time fattening my bank account a bit. I could use Magic exp from alching, but it's such a tiresome chore, and I wanted to maximize profits, so I've just been selling the finished bows.

I also did the new quest, which was extremely annoying in parts. It had several parts which varied slightly for each player -and- a stealth section. Thankfully, it works a bit better than Ratcatcher's, so it didn't take too long. Plus, it had an awesomely named music track to go along with it, so it's cool.

Progress.

Egad! I decided to take a break from Strength and my Total level has flown up by around twenty-five levels. In addition to getting Thieving, Agility, Farming and Slayer levels, I got 66 Cooking and raised my Crafting to 60, and just now went from 60-65 Fletching. I guess the constant combat training was more boring that I thought, heh.

Interestingly enough, a sequel to Cold War has been released. A few days before its release, a submarine was sighted in various places around the map, examining things with its periscope. Using the Lunar spell "NPC Contact" allowed you to speak with a penguin inside, essentially confirming the quest.
I haven't done it myself yet. I still need to do Sea Slug, but I'll try to get that out of the way soon o.O

Wah wah! I don't like change!

For fuck sake. I decided to play Runescape rather late and was pleasantly surprised by an update. Things such as removal of members content from f2p and Leprechaun changes didn't really catch my interest. What did interest me was the upgrades to the map and HP bars.
The dungeon maps should be quite useful, as getting the one you need on Zybez can be a hassle, and you can get to it in one click now.

The HP bar upgrade is something I've been desiring for a long time now. The single colour blocks that have been around since Runescape Classic were getting really outdated. The new ones are a lot more modern and seem so much more like a life bar than the old ones did. In addition to that, "Redbarring" is now a thing of the past, apparently. No more frustration as you watch your foe continue to stand, despite having an empty HP bar. Huzzah.

But my joy soon came crashing down as I browsed the feedback forum. I can honestly not believe the uproar over such a minor change. There were several threads with several pages worth of complaints each, with less than a few hours since the release.
I really should have gotten used to this by now, but hell, there were even a few people threatening to quit playing. Over what? A fricking HP bar!

I understand that it was just about the only thing that hadn't changed since RSC, but players really need to stop living in the past. Sure, you don't have to like it, but just because it's new doesn't mean it's horrible.

Progress.

Since my last post, I've been flat-out grinding my Combat stats, although I haven't been neglecting daily tasks such as farming either...much.
All's been going well. I've reached 95 Combat, and am very close to 96. My attack's reached 75, so I bought a BGS in order to train Strength. Thanks to it, I've gained five levels already. Seeing as the Bgs's only real use is for training Strength, I've decided to get it to 99. Not only is it relativly easy to multitask with, but the rate is similar to fishing and once I finish, I can sell back the Godsword, seeing as I won't need it anymore.

This pretty much means I won't be training Firemaking. For quite a while.
It's for the best though. It's utterly tiresome.

General stuff...stuff...

I've been getting back into the swing of things. I put in a couple of hours work on Attack. I've advanced three levels, leaving me one short of wielding a Godsword. Once I can, I'll be able to train Strength again, without having to resort to a Dragon longsword.
Thanks to this, I've also gained a Combat level, putting me at 93. Gaining one further Attack level will give me 94, and getting Strength to 70 will not only take a small amount of time, but it will surely push me to 95.

I've also been doing a bit of farming, and I'm now close to 53. Runecrafting, thieving and Agility continue to be pains, but once I get my thieving high enough to Plunder effectively, it should speed up. I'm also considering finally finishing Monkey Madness in order to use the Ape Atoll agility course.

In other news, I've finished High School. Officially at least. I still need to go in for the next two weeks for revision and my GCSEs, but once that's all over with, I'll have three months to myself, completely free of any burdens. No schoolwork, no job, no chores, for the first time in twelve, thirteen years? Sure Summer holidays have generally been carefree, but I've almost always had homework to do during them...

Vermin.

I must say; Ratcatchers is one of the worst quests I've had the misfortune of having to do.
See, I'm intent on completing the Varrock Achievement diary, so I can powertrain my cooking to 70 in the Cooking guild. Filling a rat pole is one of the tasks.
Despite only having a kitten, catching the rats at the beginning of the quests wasn't too irritating. It wasn't until I reached the mansion that I really started to hate the damned quest.
I'm not a big fan of stealth games, by no means. Having to sneak around a bunch of common mooks, which you'd probably be able to kill anyway if the game would let you, is not my idea of fun.
I can tolerate them though, if needbe (such as Wind Wakers's opening "dungeon"). However, if they just flatout don't work. The guards wandering around the manor will spot you if you're in their presence, no matter which way they were looking. I'm pretty sure they don't have eyes in the back of their heads. In this sense, it's not really stealth. It's just waiting for the right time to move. And finding the right time is a pain in the ass, because you're never really told what results in you being seen or not. Hell, if I'm exposed for two seconds, while there's one guard on the opposite side of the room LOOKING THE OTHER FRICKING WAY, he isn't going to suddenly turn around, yell "Halt! Thief" (which doesn't make any sense in itself, because I'm not here to do anything thieving) and cause me to teleport outside.
That's another thing, why do I get teleported away? Why can't it just stick to erasing the memories of the guards? And why the hell can you be spotted the second you climb onto the balcony? I mean, come on! I know you can check before you go up there, but fuck, there are two other guards that could just as easily see me, so like hell I'm going to check every time.

Another quest, Sheep Herder, springs to mind in terms of frustration, but at least that one wasn't flat out broken. It just needed quick fingers and reflexes. Ratcatchers is completely broken, and needs a complete overhaul.

End of the road.

You guys remember Tufftypower, right? The forum mod (as well as a player mod now) who runs the W23 fanclub? I spent the last few hours at his Combat level 138 party.
We all met up in Draynor, and paraded through to Lumbridge, then Varrock, then Falador and arrived at his house.

Along the way, two Jagex mods showed up, to congradulate Tuffty on his achievement. We were informed that we were all on a big screen at Jagex hq, which was especially cool. I mean, my character appeared on a big screen at Jagex hq :D
It shows how close a relationship Jagex has with their Player moderators (especially so in Tuffty's case, seeing as he's also a forum mod).
So anyway, despite losing half the group along the way, everyone made it to his house, where he entered the Combat ring to reach 96 Summoning and level his combat up for the final time. There were a few mishaps with a certain noob who'd tagged along who kept climbing into the ring to try and ruin things, but it was dealt with and despite Tuffty's worries, everything turned out great.
We then headed to the Party room, where he put 1000k needles into the party chest. Believe me, you'd regret missing the amount of people who'd interrupted their training just to find out that all that was in the chest was needles flaming Tuffty.
After the needles dropped, he put in the real items, the best of which I've screencapped.

The entire total of the drop came to a staggering 90 million gold pieces.

Of course, it meant that I didn't stand a chance at getting a single drop, but it was the spirit that counted. After all, the ranks of the max combat players just got larger.


On my side of things, I've been training Ranged a bit more. I'm at level 58 now.
It's interesting, because that's what my melee stats were around when I returned to Runescape in June, yet my Ranged was only 11. I'm starting to get into the skill a bit more now, though, so hopefully some day soon, I can fight using Ranged methods, on par with my melee or mage ones.
I'm also going after the Varrock Achievement diary. I've decided to get 70 Cooking, so the Varrock Armour 3 will be a great help in that regard.
I'm also very close to overtaking Tim in terms of Fishing experience, thus reaching the top of the Blessings leaderboard for the skill. There's only 30-40k in it now, so expect it to happen soon :)