Monkey Madness Continued.....

Guess this is it; the last installment of the MM-saga. In short, I finished it. Not without some trouble though. Traversing the tunnels twice was, eh, heart stopping. That would be the best description I can give. The first one, to get the gold bars enchanted was the worst. Of course I had the benefit of having done it once before. Still it got on my  nerves. That said, I think I found a new trick.

I entered the tunnels and clicked on the radar as far ahead on the route to take as I could. Once again I used the tactic of taking the damage by falling rock, healing when needed. I only turned on protect from melee when I reached the skeletons. And that is when the clicking way in front seemed to pay off: I didn't get hit by the floor spikes. It almost seems the 'automatic route' avoids them. The only time there was a hit from a trap: The one you can avoid using a plank, but that one dealt a hit of 7 which was manageable. At the end the sorry, but welcome sight of a gnome: Zooknock.

M-speak amulet made, child's toy acquired and the 2nd run. Not hard since I now knew what to expect, and Zooknock made the gree-gree. Instead of teleporting out I took the scenic route. A Karamja monkey on a leisurely walk, avoiding traps, but taking damage of falling rock. It seems the road-sign was missing. A short interlude where the diplomatic mission to Awowogei took place (and I can assure you I am not cut out for diplomatic missions), a cut-scene to reveal the machinations of gnome-monkey politics, a rescue of a fellow Karamja monkey and finally the battle between yours truly and a demon.

That was a tad harder than I thought it would be, and thus I bought a farm. I was careless and thus the first mission to save the 10th squad went down in flames. Magic flames. The ruddy demon had me for lunch. With 49 def one does not want to face this one head on. The second attempt went down without a hitch. Again, knowing what to do makes it easy. And so Monkey Madness is finished. It even got me past a few milestones:

And the 100 quest points:

Economics

Merch Gwyar posted her insights on RuneScape's economy and in all honesty I am a bit flustered about it. You see, I don't believe it. I don't believe there is such a thing as hyperinflation in the RS economy, however nice it sounds. I will concur there are price changes that defy the 'norm' (if there even is such a thing as  'norm').

The example given as proof of hyperinflation is the price of ranger boots, and of course they have changed dramatically over a period of time. But hyperinflation? I don't think so. Let's take a look at something that is considered to be a normal item. Iron ore for instance.

When I started playing (in 2005) iron ore could be had for 90-125 gp. The current price on the GE is 203gp (down 3 from yesterday). That doesn't sound like hyperinflation to me. It sounds more like a steady raise of around 8-10% per year. Still inflation, but hyper?  So maybe another article? Cowhide? Again the comparison with 2005: 100-150 back in the days where the listed GE price is 212 at the moment. That, once more, doesn't sound like hyperinflation to me.

Maybe I am looking at the wrong articles, so let me change directions. Guthan's Warspear used to be around the 6.5m mark, and I am sure about that, I got killed, lost one, had to buy it again; but now it sells for 1.5m. That is deflation, not inflation. Dharok's helmet shows the same decline in price.

Let's go back to ranger boots. Again 2005: 600k back then, and again I am pretty sure about that price: I did my lvl 2 clues faithfully and training range at Pyrefiends got me a fair number of them. Three of those resulted in ranger boots: One I sold, one I died with (and subsequently lost), one I still have. Yup, that is inflation, and you could call it hyperinflation since the price rose way more than, say, 10% per year.

But does that mean the whole economy is burdened by hyperinflation? Or are it just a few items that, for one reason or another, suffers from increases beyond what one would expect?

Are price changes dependent on other factors than 'mere economy'? Again 'if memory serves': there was a huge increase of the price of raw material when skill capes were introduced. With the introduction of the GE, to combat RWT, the general economy lost the input of raw materials by botting. And we all applauded that action. The funny thing is this: It doesn't seem there is a substantial impact of the loss of those raw materials: Prices are higher than before the 'extinction' of bots, but not by a zillion percentage.

So the only thing suffering are rare and semi-rare items. Rares I won't look at: Since the supply of those doesn't change (the number stays the same/will only decrease when one owning drops out of the game or dies with one) it can only be expected the price of those will rise more than items that have a renewable source. That leaves us with the semi-rares. The ranger boots, the god swords, the 3rd age items and all those other items that take hard work, zillion of tries, and multiple deaths to acquire. In short, items that take hard work, perseverance, to get. And therein, in my humble opinion, lies the crux of the matter. Hard work.

The work you need to do to get such an item. And, if the price rise is the way to judge it, more and more players are not willing to put in the work to get it, and so the price goes up. But that is not hyperinflation... That is the economy at work...

MM update, defeat is mine

I will admit defeat. I'm not doing that gladly, I really thought I had a shot at completing MM; maybe it just wasn't meant to be.

So, you might want to know what happened. In short I died four times. Four times trying to reach Zooknock, and four times reaching different parts of the dungeon. All of the times it were the level 142 skeleton monkeys that did me in.

Reconnoitering the dungeon with Simple gave me a few difficult passages. Basically there are four main threats. The first one are the Zombie Monkeys, followed by a few traps, some environmental problems like poisoning and falling debris, and lastly the Skeleton Monkeys. The environmental problems were the least of my worries. I can deal with those using anti poison and, at certain intervals, gobble up a buttered potato or two.

The first few traps were not a problem either. Same procedure as with the environment, anti poison and potato. Zombie Monkeys posed a bigger problem but the combination of running and eating those potatoes again meant I got past those. Then the big problem arose: Floor spikes and Skeleton Monkeys in one go.

I'll admit here and now I didn't have energy potions on me: I can't make those (well, I couldn't, I can now). So, down on run energy, I had no other recourse than to rest and hide from the Skeletons. There is this one spot where you can hole up without being attacked by Zombie Monkeys or Skeletons and just taking the hits from falling debris. Since that takes only 2-3 hp away while resting to get run energy back it is do-able.

Then the real trouble starts: The mad dash round three corners, each littered with floor spikes and skeletons trying to do you in. And in all four tries that did it. Floor spikes hit you for 7 and will keep hitting for 7 when you stand on them. With 40 hp that means I could be safe if I got hit a maximum of five times. Not counting the skeletons...

And that is where it went horribly wrong... Getting hit for 7's from the floor, and way higher by skeletons meant I just couldn't gobble up potatoes fast enough to get me through it. Four times I tried, four times I failed.

Out of pure frustration I did another quest: Shades of Mort'ton. That got me 22 herblore and the possibility to concoct energy potions. Maybe I'll give it one more go with a few energy potions on me.

One thing that still amazes me. Sabre Grief. Apparently, by his own admission, he completed the dungeon on his Grief account while being combat level 30 with 1 prayer. I can't for the life of me understand how he managed to do that, since it would mean even less hp to lose than the 40 I have, and a lower def level so the monkeys hit higher... Nope, I just can't imagine how he did it.

Can I? Should I? What the hell.. I'll just have a go

I finished Dragon Slayer yesterday. Range in melee-style. In all honesty I didn't like ranging as if I was a warrior. It just isn't my 'style'. I like range for what it is: Stealth, sneaky, long distance. Since the safe spots aren't there, or maybe they are, just didn't look around for them, I resorted to melee-ranging. Buttered potatoes kept me alive, with about 12 left at the end.

It raised defence to a staggering 46, and strength to 35. With attack at 40 it also made me a melee combat perspeop at cb 50, and though I don't like being a warrior I'm seriously considering talking to a king.

A Monkey Madness king. A gnome king. A king that probably will lead to my demise. Still, I am going to have a go at MM. Not the smartest thing to do, if you don't like to die, but I'd like to see if the experience of a 'Simple-life-time' will see me through it. My biggest worry is traversing the maze with a prayer level not suited for it... Not being able to rely on protect from melee will probably do me in. That said: I think I can finish it, be it with a lot of perseverance. Since I can make anti poisons, that would take care of one thing. With 38 agi I probably will have a hard time keeping run ability up, but not trying is just not in the cards.

So I am off to see the wizard, the wonderful of Oz the king.

Oh, stats at the start of this voyage:

You successfully burn a salmon

Before giving you an update about the life and times of both Gwalagwic and Simple I'd like to wish you all the best for 2010. May the Gods of Gielinor smile upon you.

I cannot get over the fact levels come as fast as they do on the Gwalagwic account. This morning I stumbled over some roots while hurrying to Ardougne from the quaint Seers homestead. Of course I had to investigate and I came upon an Evil Maple tree. That is the highest tree I can tackle and thus started chopping away at it. Doing that I raised my level to 53 and with the time rewarded to use the auto-banking feature I managed to get that even to 54. TWO levels thanks to one tree...

Since I was short only a few xp to level 35 fletching I had to have a go at that. 290 Iron arrows got me that level and that made it possible to use some of the willow logs I had stashed away in a far corner of the bank. Willow shorts, and no stringing. Soon, after 374 willow short bows, I had the capability to make willow longs. And I just had to try that out. Resulting in another 3 fletching levels and one free spot in the bank... gone were the willows.

Normally on the Simple account I would have dropped the bows (u) but Gwala just is strapped for cash and thus I sold the bows to the general store: I truly was amazed at the 20k I could add to my coffers. Well, not all of it... I invested in 1000 feathers and after using 180 of them I reached 34 fishing, and, after cooking the fish on the range at Lumbridge Caste, 36 cooking. This resulted in a grand total of 604 levels. I can only say I am pretty pleased with that.

Simple doesn't fare that well. With all the festivities I just couldn't bring myself to do some work on both accounts and thus she only had a go at the Christmas event.

One week past

Well, the 19th is over and.... I missed loads of the Canting Winter Festival. Saturdays, for me, are not a good time to attend stuff like this. It somehow clashes with Real Life as it is the day were we prepare for the rest of the week. That means shopping; shopping for food, drink, and all those other items to keep you groomed, fed, clothed for a few days. This time that got compounded with the arrival of 'the last days before Christmas'. Even more food, drink, clothes, and knick-knacks. Luckily I got to Full Gangsta's and Merch's house-parties (cut short by the fact it was close to 2:00am) and the conga-fire-line on Saturday followed by a short stay at the F2p event of Sal's. Sadly no pictures but you will find enough of them in various blogs around the place.

Since today is Sunday I'll have to put in a few words of Gwalagwic's adventures. It has been great fun to be able to level at a reasonable rate again. No more grinding away to reach goals which need inordinate amounts of xp, but the laissez-fair of the Newb, on her way to great heights. I did put in a reasonable amount of time, due to the absence of K. I put off going to bed, eating at regular times, and a few other day-to-day things. And thus the first thing to do is show a pic of that amount of time and the levels:

I know, it isn't healthy to stay up late, rise early, work, eat AND play RS.

According to the same Adventurer's Log I completed 16 quests, and started another 13. Maybe next on the list will be to finish those...

One of the things that hit me hard was this: The inordinate amount of time needed to get around, not having the ability to teleport to god-knows-where. Gwala was on her way to Full Gangsta's house... travelling from Lumbridge to Yanille would take either a house teleport or watchtower teleport... not for Gwala. It meant walking, taking a boat, walking, taking another boat, more walking. Since I concentrated on levels and not money-making that meant I couldn't take the one-go boat trip to Port Khazard. (revising the to-do-list: Make some money first, it'll make life a bit more easy).

Still, it was fun being a Newb again. Even met a few nice people. People who otherwise would be in awe of the levels Simple has now reacted in a normal way: Talk about how to do things, not 'omg no-life'.

One last thing: I do hope Sal will do something about the ripped guides Vaskor made a mention of in his blog (an old entry, I know). This time I posted on Sal's and it didn't get deleted.

I got my first two charms today

One gold and one crimson. I can hear you think: "First two? How? What? Why?" Pretty simple actually, I started again. Gwalagwic is the name, pleased to meet you. Yesterday, Sunday, it all came together. The grinding just was getting just a bit too much, so out of boredom I created the new account and got members a bit later on. The later was not out of choice: The electronic transfer for the 6 months of membership took some time.

So I have played a bit and I'm enjoying every minute of it. New, old quests, old skills but with fresh look at how to tackle them. Stats at the end of Sunday:

At the 'end' of today (It doesn't look like I will have the time to play again today the 14th, unless it is well past midnight) it looked like this: