Beware the twelfth of March

If for some reason you've been living under a rock, RuneScape is having an experience bonus weekend starting March 12 to March 15, 2010. This announcement came out-of-the-blue on Friday via a developer blog.

The two top skills contending for this update are herblore and summoning. People are stockpiling already and prices are skyrocketing. For those trying to buy any secondaries/tertiaries for current training are discovering themselves locked out of supplies. Big money can be made from this and I expect the highest prices will be a day or two before and the start of the event. This is affecting the rares market as a few people are willing to trade santas and Halloween masks for ingredients.

Skills that put you in contention with other players for resources will likely be crowded, such as hunter, slayer, mining and the combat skills (attack, strength, defense, range). Expect to do much world hopping to find semi-open training spots.

Alternative to fighting for resources is training where a crowd is either helpful or non-hindering. Runecraft via the abyss on W36 and become part of the herd against revenant attacks. Run laps on the agility course of your choice. Farm trees and herbs; planting trees the day before and checking the health on Friday may be sneaky but well within the rules. Bury every bone you find since house altars and the Ectofuntus don't count.

I'm neither for nor against this event. More experience is always welcome, no matter what level the skill. I am a bit concerned over how this will affect the new skill and base prices of materials on the GE.

I need an easy skill for trim

When capes of accomplishment were released in October 2006, there was much rejoicing. Now proof could be shown when a person claimed to have 99 in a given skill or had completed all the game's quests.

The downside of these capes would be dumping certain skills into an "easy" category. "Easy" is relative to the player. Cooking may look easy, especially with the cook-x option, but those who claim it's "easy" typically don't have the perseverance to roast 10k lobsters every day for two weeks. Time isn't taken into consideration for these "easy" skills. They want a fast cape to show off and an even faster one to trim it.

The opposite end of that spectrum is the "respectable" cape. Capes such as runecrafting, slayer, mining, herblore and prayer are termed "respectable", though keep in mind they are also skills which require constant attention, a considerable amount of spendable cash or both. 

Once a skill has reached 99 and a cape claimed, many players continue to train the skill despite it providing no benefit to them. Usually, they'll wear the cape while training said skill (I do it myself) such as the woodcutting cape while woodcutting or fishing cape while fishing. It brings out the question of why train a skill you've already maxed. Some skills work in harmony with others, especially if you're the type of player to gather your own resources, such as woodcutting/fletching/firemaking or fishing/cooking and by training in one skill, you're helping train another. A few people see this as stealing experience or resources, claiming you should stop training [insert skill name] now that you have 99 in it. It can be difficult to believe that players enjoy a skill so much that they just keep training it.

The quest cape is a category of its own. I state it to be the hardest cape to wear because you have to constantly train and quest to continue your right to wear it. Once a person gets the quest cape for the first time, they are happy to be done with questing for the moment, yet they can be quite frustrated at losing the cape within a few days due to a new quest appearing. When that happens, you can only hope the quest will be simple to follow and complete.

I see capes of accomplishment as just that - an accomplishment. These capes are a little reward for striving through a skill and finishing it. I love each of my skill capes and wear them as a show of the hard work I've done throughout my RuneScape "career".

Welcome to NoobScape

The internet gives everyone anonymity and a freedom from repercussions of their actions. Schadenfreude is everywhere.

In RuneScape, there is no way to escape being a noob. Level 3 and just starting out? You're a noob. All skills over 40? You're a noob. Maxed total level? You're a noob. Don't do something the way someone else does it? You're a noob. Not wearing the "right" outfit? You're a noob.

Training will only get you back-handed compliments like "That's good - for your level" or "You need to work on that" or "You need to get your [skill name] up". How you train will also get the noob label. Not only will you be called a noob, but told to go away and "mine rune" or "cut magics". The alternative is being told a better way to level, such as cut willows instead of maples or mine iron instead of granite. 

The best way to relieve the sting from the insult of noob is admit you are one. Merch Gwyar readily admits to still being a noob and Aximili E I calls himself the "RSC Noob". When I get called a noob, I tell them "yup" and keep on going.

Noob.

Fire and ice

It seems the bruhaha concerning the fire cape requirement to kill icy strykewyrms reached a Jagex compromise. Of course, this leads many players convinced Jagex is caving in to the whiners. Weren't these the same people whining over the torso changes last month? It looks as though people without a fire cape may be offered a chance to pay slayer points to buy the ability to kill icy strykewyrms.

If you're expecting this post to be the same as you've read from others, it isn't. I don't give a flying fig over either owning a fire cape, nor being able to kill icy strykewyrms.

My internet connection is excellent. My reflexes are just fine. I'm not deaf nor blind nor arthritic. I can do the Fight Caves if I want. I just don't want.

On the other hand, slayer is not a favorite skill. A long ago tip from Simple and Kuittaa was to train combat with slayer, thereby earning exp in at least two skills at the same time. That is the only reason I have 91 slayer. I've never found the lure of the availability of a new monster strong enough to charge in as soon as I had the level to kill it. I may get 93 slayer within the next year or two, but I doubt I'll waste my slayer points canceling tasks and buying the ability in the hopes Kuradel will offer me icy strykewyrms.

I do hope Jagex takes something from this whole debacle, preferably don't attempt to link a mini game reward with a skill in which is has nothing in common. Linking the fire cape with a slayer task is akin to linking a gnome scarf with crafting.

I know my name is Kitt

I don't exactly have a difficult name to spell or one with 2-3 spaces inbetween, but I get my share of people who can't type out my name. 

The most common call-out is by my combat level. Which might be useful to catch my attention, except I'm in Edgeville bank, surrounded by other level 138s.

Second common call-out is by the skillcape I'm wearing. Not so good when mugging in Ardougne and hearing, "Hey thief".

By far my favorite is "hey". Just "hey", not "hey kitt" or "hey lvl 138" or "hey y r u takin me 2 blue drags?"

I befriended a nice person a few months ago while smithing. We talked about smithing and other things, leading up to added each other as friends. This person asked if it was okay to call me kitty. Being in a jovial mood, I said it was fine. Little did I know my new friend would greet me each time I logged in with "hello my kitty-cat".

With the ability to change your RuneScape name, it can be more difficult to type someone's name. More symbols and random capitalization are allowed, bringing out such cleverness as |\/|IKEY. While those sorts of names can be amusing, I've found they can also be a pain, like II11III1I1I1II1II. Try typing that one for an abuse report, lol.

It's not always easy to get someone's name right, but most people will forgive honest mistakes.

This crow is delicious

I realize I said that I would not blog about RuneScape again, even shutting off contact with friends who assumed I would take a month or two off before jumping back into blogging. 

You were right.

I was wrong.

Feel free to gloat over that. I would in your shoes. :D

What I will attempt to do with this blog is talk about the game itself rather than my usual "what I did in RS today".