And in all honesty I truly don't know what to expect. Well, I do expect a few things; apart from the odd level or two, for Simple, Gwala will try to reach somewhere around herblore 45. But that is not exactly why I am somewhat bothered by the whole thing.
You see, I think there will be loads of trouble. I haven't read anything about how Jagex is going to cope with the influx of players. Think about it for a moment: There are 84 member worlds and each hold at maximum 2000 players. Now we calculate, 84 times 2000 equals 168,400, and so a maximum of about 168k players can be on-line for the duration of the weekend. Sure, not all will no-life for the total period, but there will be players around who will do their best to maximize their investment in prepared items. And rightly so, it is after all the sole reason for the xp weekend: Try to get your levels up as fast as you can. So we prepared.
Gwala got her grubby hands on enough tarromin, viles and ashes to get that 45 herb. Simple only prepared by planting as many trees as possible and enough d-bones to ecto her to the next prayer level (even if double xp doesn't work with the ectofunctus enough bonemeals/buckets of slime are around to get it), and enough "unf potions" to get one herb level. For the rest I will just play as I always do: For the fun of it, not focussing on anything else but on 'am I having a good time'.
But I cannot help but wonder if I will have the opportunity to play. Will I or won't I be squeezed out by those who really prepared... Those who invested millions upon millions to get to 99 summoning or prayer, or herblore, or crafting or any other of the skills we have. 168,400 players at maximum... will it be enough? Or will there be a lot of disgruntled players after this weekend because they couldn't get enough playing time in to reach their goals.
One more thing that worries me: Lag. With that number of players around it stands to reason the amount of data sent all over the world could result in Lag... Ah well, we will see...
Good luck to all who really prepared...
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
A Grand Total
Or, it took me 7 days, 13 hrs of playing time to reach the 1000 level. Construction did it and got all my levels above 9...
Apart from that I have been fishing.... a lot. A lot for me that is, and with around 800 lobsters banked that should be enough for a reasonable cooking level come xp weekend. Planning for that: There is no planning. I will prepare by planting whatever seed I can but for the rest nothing. I might have a go at agility though. 52 sounds nice since it would give me access to the Wilderness course. The other thing might be range/slayer. I just don't know. We will see it when we get there.
For Simple I only have one thing planned: One farming level, courtesy of 5 magic trees, 5 palm trees, 1 calquat and 1 spirit tree. Since they are all protected it should be enough to get one level.
Apart from that I have been fishing.... a lot. A lot for me that is, and with around 800 lobsters banked that should be enough for a reasonable cooking level come xp weekend. Planning for that: There is no planning. I will prepare by planting whatever seed I can but for the rest nothing. I might have a go at agility though. 52 sounds nice since it would give me access to the Wilderness course. The other thing might be range/slayer. I just don't know. We will see it when we get there.
For Simple I only have one thing planned: One farming level, courtesy of 5 magic trees, 5 palm trees, 1 calquat and 1 spirit tree. Since they are all protected it should be enough to get one level.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
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:
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:
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
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...
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...
Saturday, January 23, 2010
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.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
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:
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:
Sunday, January 3, 2010
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.
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.
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