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31 March 2007

Candy's Back

First off, some fanatastic news.

I've finally restocked my steel supplies so I can go back to Smithing and doing my homework again. I bought 20,000 bars in total, and believe me, they really didn't come cheap. Prices are still up, so I'll be making a profit that is significantly less, when I smith the steel into cannonballs.

Even better news, Candysfun got her original account back. I saw her this morning wearing a Dragon chainmail, just outside the Catherby bank. I doubt Killer returned it though; most likely, she decided to pool in some money to buy a new chain. Her moderator title has also been stripped away from her, so naturally, I'm still quite pissed with Jagex since she did nothing wrong to deserve this.


Candy with her original account. Notice that there is no longer a silver
mod crown next to her name.

And, umm, my Firemaking training is still doing pretty well. I managed to reach Lvl 81 today, however, I wasn't able to take a screenshot. Not to worry though, the next lvl up isn't far off...


Stuff achieved today: Lvl 81 Firemaking

Posted by Timothy Gold at 8:13 PM |

29 March 2007

You Have Failed Your Players...


My reward for completing the quest, What Lies Below.

Jagex finally released their last update of the month yesterday.

The update was a quest which gave a small history of Varrock as well as this group of Zamorakians who secretly lived there sometime during the Fifth age. Some Zamorakian, named Surok Magis, manipulated my character into helping him gather some stuff, so that he could conjure up this Mind-Control spell.


Surok casting the Mind-Control Spell.

His motive was to hypnotise the King of Varrock, King Roald, into doing his bidding. My avatar, along with a Mage named Zaff, were able to thwart his plans. I'd really go more in-depth about this quest's plot, but I have some very urgent matters to discuss.

Alas, Jagex has made a very abysmal mistake which I am extremely disguted with. In my last post, I talked about a Mod named Candysfun who got scammed by her friend, Killer 42. Well, Jagex decided to ignore Candy's reports on Killer's rule breaking. To be honest, I was half-expecting this, as I wasn't sure whether Candy had any solid evidence to back up her claim.


Candy using her new account, Sweetdoce. See, Jagex? She's innocent!

However, it was the Jagex staff's second action which really got me ticked off. They've removed Candy's "Player Moderator" title and have suspended her account. Apparently, Jagex has had reason to believe that Candy was sharing her account with another person! This, being a serious offence, could slap Candy with a perma-ban. Here's some bits and pieces of the conversation between me and Candy's boyfriend, Cavleiro.




With her current account now suspended, Candy has created another
account called Sweetdoce.



Candy may not have given her password to anyone, but some random
hacker could've easily found out about it anyway. Now, why hadn't Jagex
considered that?


My fears have been confirmed - Killer 42 got away scot-free!


I can't stand Jagex either. Bunch of uncaring fags...


Jagex, your approach to this whole situation is just simply ridiculous. Not only have you failed to punish the scammer, you've also taken the unnecessary action of blaming one of your loyal moderators for a crime she did not commit. I am disgusted and appalled.


Stuff achieved today: Lvl 79 Firemaking, 95 million Total exp

Posted by Timothy Gold at 8:50 PM |

26 March 2007

Wanted - One Very Stubborn Noob

Craziest shit happened today.

I happened to be training my Firemaking outside the Seers bank, when I overheard (or over-read rather) a few messages from this girl named Candysfun, who happened to be a player moderator (will be referred to as "mods" henceforth).


The victim (girl with the blond pigtails)


The scammer (the one wielding the orange shield)

Turns out that she had scammed out of her Dragon Chainmail, a really expensive type of armour, by her friend. Interested with the irony of the whole situation, since mods are supposed to punish scammers, instead of becoming one of their victims, I immediately started taking screenshots of the key parts of the conversation. Hehe, it's time for you to find out the true dominance mods have over scammers.



I smell trouble...





Yep, she's been scammed. And now that this point has been established we shall now observe the "moddy" measures poor Candy will take to get her chainmail back.


First line of defence - The empty threat


Second line of defence - Godly moderator powers


Third line of defence - Horde of suck up, goody-two-shoes admirers


Last line of defence - Back up (uh no, Candy really means business now...)

The result of the long, hard struggle? The bitch didn't budge. Killer insisted on keeping the chainmail. Let's have a look at the aftermath, shall we?


Careful there, Tom. I happen to know that Candy already has a
boyfriend. And no, I am not kidding.


Yeah sure, Diablo. It'll only take her the rest of the year to earn the cash
to buy back the chainmail.


Well, Candysfun and her dear little friends (including her boyfriend who showed up later), have undoubtedly reported the stupid dog for item scamming. Should Jagex decide to take these reports seriously, we can expect Killer to be issued a ban (possibly pernament?).

Looking her up in the highscores can easily verify the status of her account. If her name fails to pop up, we can safely conclude that Killer's account has been deleted/suspended. I'll keep you updated in my posts about the whole thing. I want justice to be served...


Stuff achieved today: Lvl 77 Firemaking (training's still going strong admist the chaos!)

Posted by Timothy Gold at 7:35 PM |

25 March 2007

Hoohah, I'm On Fire!

A word of advice for all you Runescapers out there - Never ever burn logs wearing a partyhat and full Dragon armour in front of a bank full of noobs. Just don't do it.

If I got a coin for every guy who asked me to show him my stuff in a trade screen, or beg for free stuff or even ask for money making tips, I'd probably have enough cash to afford another Red partyhat! Yeah, I think I better stick to my Shades Robes.


Alright, enough with the noobs. I really don't care about them; the important thing is that my Firemaking training is still going strong. Two level ups today, pushing the skill to Lvl 75. The level up rate is far slower compared to yesterday, however, since the exp gap between level ups is much larger, this "reduction" in progress can only be expected. My other excuse for the two level ups is that I've been busy with school work.


I now have the ability to burn Magic Logs!

I finally got around to doing some filing. My worksheets and notes were in a total mess, until today that is. Also got round to doing my homework; best not to get in trouble with my teachers at the start of the week now...


Stuff achieved today: Lvl 75 Firemaking

Posted by Timothy Gold at 9:19 PM |

24 March 2007

Firemaking Breakthrough

Okay, I'm out of Steel bars right now so there certainly won't be any cannonball making for me for a while...

So last evening, out of pure boredom, I decided to grab a few Maple logs from my (now steel-less) bank account and train my Firemaking. After just 10 minutes of setting them on fire, I lvled up! Pleasantly surprised with the fast exp rate, I continued burning the logs, and soon got another lvl up. But it didn't stop there; from the time I went back to bed until right now, I gained another 5 Level, thus boosting my Firemaking from 66 to 73. That's 7 Levels in roughly 24 hours!



It did wonders to my total lvl. My rank, originally in the 8000's has now been pushed up to the 7500's. For an almost completely useless skill to train, Firemaking can be dead handy when you want to improve your total exp and lvl. I'm gonna continue burning more Maple logs until Level 75. Might even consider aiming for 80 if I'm not too bored after that.


Stuff achieved today: Lvl 73 Firemaking

Posted by Timothy Gold at 10:46 PM |

22 March 2007

Dorgesh-Kaan


The gates to Dorgesh-Kaan.

Visited the new city, Dorgesh-Kaan yesterday afternoon. The place was larger than I had expected, and Jagex did a wonderful job with the graphics.

Okay, a brief intro for the city; Dorgesh-Kaan is inhabited by a certain tribe of goblins. Originally, there had just been one "type" of goblin which lived in large groups, however, during the God Wars, an evil God , whom I quote "whose name had been lost through the ages", forced them to fight amongst each other for pure enjoyment. Fearing the survival of his kind, a brave goblin general, as well as several followers, stood up against this God and defied him. The God, who became super pissed with the goblin general's rebellion, casted a magic spell, causing the ground to swallow and trap them underground.


A screenshot of Dorgesh-Kaan. Not bad eh?

The Dorgeshuun, as this tribe of goblins call themselves, lived below the surface undisturbed for thousands of years, even long after the God Wars had ended. They adapted to the darkness and grew larger eyes than their "surface-dwelling" counterparts. The Dorgeshuun were also able to keep their intelligence, unlike the common goblins which became increasingly dumber through the years (probably the result of them doing nothing but fight during the wars).

After I completed the quests, The Lost tribe and Death to the Dorgeshuun, these underground goblins finally became exposed to the surface, and after a vote, decided to allow humans to venture to their city. I have already explored Dorgesh-Kaan, and really liked the goblinized houses and buildings.


Part of the Dorgesh-Kaan Agility Course

The city's features include a very high Level Agility Arena, a bank, a furnace, an anvil, a sandpit and a special town market selling goblin foodstuffs. Quite frankly, for a city that large, there still isn't much I can do there; however I'm pretty sure that the place will be spruced up a little eventually. It's likely to be a start-point for the next part(s) of the Dorgeshuun quest storyline.


The bank of Dorgesh-Kaan


Stuff achieved today: Explored a new area

Posted by Timothy Gold at 8:53 PM |

20 March 2007

Homework, Pricey Steel & Updates

First day of school was a nightmare as expected, although it was great seeing my friends again.

Today was a great improvement compared to yesterday, but I was still busy cathing up with my homework. I expect that the rest of the week will mostly be the same especially since the teachers are now doing file checks. Guess it's back to good ol' multi-tasking for me, only, come to think of it, it may not be that simple...

I am currently facing a rather dire shortage of Steel. I think that my usual 600gp per bar offers just doesn't appeal to those smelters anymore. Its market price has been pushed up! Grrr! Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that without steel, my smithing will effectively grind to a halt, and I'd like to add that Smithing is the only only "slack" skill left that's not already maxed out. It requires little clicking, and I can easily use the time in between the clicks to work on my school assignments and junk.


The newly updated cows. Stay tuned for screenshots of the new
underground city in the next post.

Bad news aside, today's updates cheered me up somewhat. This new underground city is now accessible for players who completed the Death to the Dorgeshuun quest (me!). Graphical improvements have been made to all the so-called farm animals in Runescape, and Jagex even tweaked the old mini-game, the Fishing Trawler. They've also compensated for their behavior on SwiftSwitch by placing a button on the login screen, allowing players to switch servers as efficiently as using the former SwiftSwitch versions. In addition, they've listened to a few common player suggestions and made a few other tiny changes in the game.


A screenshot of the newly updated chickens.

Well done, Jagex, for tending to your players' needs. I'm still not happy about your attitude towards Strider, who sincerely wanted to play a part in helping out too, but hey, you've done well this week. Fantastic work! (And I'll be checking out that new underground city sometime later this week, as soon as I get more time to play)


Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Update - I've just added a new link (http://legendary.comicgenesis.com/) to the list of links displayed on the right. Just like this other webcomic, The Noob, it is based on a fictatious RPG. Go check it out; it's given me quite a few laughs.

Posted by Timothy Gold at 7:52 PM |

18 March 2007

A Miracle

You'd expect me to resume mourning about school starting again, but I have something way more important to talk about. Last night, at around 1.30 am, I was this close to losing my Red Partyhat through a "House Scam".


A screenshot of a House Portal (note - this a portal found in Taverly, not
Rimmington).

I happened to be next to the Rimmington house portal, when a guy named I Scar You2 approached me and requested that I visit his friend's, Oldtimer42 5, house. I agreed, entered it, and Oldtimer was standing right there at the entrance to greet me. He and Scar lead me to the house's dungeon, the only area where you're able to attack and kill other players. In a way, it was like the Wilderness, the only difference being, you don't lose a thing when you die there.

We must've fought for around 10 minutes or so. I died twice without anything out of the norm happening. It was then when they finally struck. Scar and Oldtimer whittled my hitpoints down to 9hp and then suddenly stopped attacking, allowing me to kill them both. I waited at the staircase of the dungeon for them to return. For no particular reason, I drank the jug of wine in my inventory, and boosted my hitpoints to 20hp.

Oldtimer finally arrives and I happily lash out my whip at him. He tells me to stop and attack Scar instead, who had just popped out at the stairs. I run towards him, and he fires an arrow at me. A split second later, I was back outside the house, right in front of the portal. Oldtimer had booted me out of the dungeon! Just 2 seconds later, bam! I see a "13" on my character.

A fragment of the conversation between Scar and I. As you can see, he's
trying to play dumb. Click on the screenshot for a larger view.

Damage dealt to my character, out in the open, where it was not safe to die at. If I had not druken that wine, I definitely wouldn't have survived that blow. I would've died right there, and lost my Red Partyhat which I was carrying. That's 200 million coins gone, not even counting the other stuff. It freaked me out, really. I'm still quite shaken up until now. You'd expect Jagex to have fixed such disasters from happening (believe me, there are others who have been victims of this scam), especially after that "World 111" incident back in June the 6th, last year (it had something to do with houses, but I'm too lazy to explain).

Through some miracle, nothing happened this time (praise the Lord!!!), but I'm never going to risk my ass like that again in future. It just sucks, it really sucks... Why hasn't Jagex fixed that loophole?


Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Posted by Timothy Gold at 7:40 PM |

17 March 2007

Combat



W00tness! A Lvl up in both Attack and Hitpoints today, and I owe it all to yesterday's intense Slayer training.


Aside from pushing my combat up, I also was able to put it to the test last night. I went for the first PK event in my new clan (founded by my sis and a friend). There wasn't exactly a great turn up rate, but I'm hoping to recruit at least a couple of my classmates as soon as school re-opens. We still were able to make up for our lack of players after we teamed up with this other clan, run by Jinyi's dad (aww come on, you remember him...).

Together, we battled a Lvl 120, a Lvl 90+ as well as a Lvl 89. No kills, but I had a good time anyway. I just hope that we have more luck next time though. I doubt that the other clan members share my indifference towards PK drops.


That's me over there wielding the Air staff, watching Jinyi's dad
(right) dueling the Lvl 120 (left).


Stuff achieved today: Lvl 88 Hitpoints, Lvl 87 Attack

Posted by Timothy Gold at 9:39 PM |

15 March 2007

An Odd Thursday

School sucks, especially if it's on a holiday. Had to get up at 6+ in the morning today and wasn't back home until 4.30pm.

My CCA needed me to do some filming on this new attraction in the Science Center. Viewing all the little stands there was fun to a certain extent, but I think it would've been better if I had stayed at home. I got this annoying headache sometime in the early afternoon, and that was when things really started to suck. I also met one of my teachers there, who happened to be taking her children to visit the place.

It was odd seeing her out of school like that, but she still managed to maintain her teacher-ishness. Hell, the first thing she said to me was "Timothy Kwok, tuck in your shirt!" She's still a nice lady though but I guess that, being both a mother and a teacher, the urge to nag is twice as strong.

Rest of the day was quite uneventful. My headache was magically alleviated after a few minutes of Runescape, and I bought a birthday present for my sis (her birthday's next week). At first I considered giving her a million coins as a gift, but hey, that'd be way too impersonal. A real life item would be more appropriate (won't say what just in case she reads this post).

And finally, to keep everyone updated, Jagex is still being an ass. They've remained adamant regarding the whole Rule 7 issue, so I guess Swiftswitch is likely to permanently lose its world switching tools. Sorry about your loss, Strider.


Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Posted by Timothy Gold at 8:28 PM |

14 March 2007

Poor Swiftswitch

Yay, I'm back home now. The four days in Malaysia have been great; my only annoyance being that the bus rides were too damn long. Still managed to get a lot of work done while travelling though, and I even got an Internet connection in the hotel.

An update was also released last night, just a few hours after I arrived home. It was just a mini-game, and I've expressed little interest in it although I might try it out this week if I get bored.

On a completely unrelated note; sadly, it appears that the Jagex staff still do not approve of Swiftswitch. I don't think they've quite gotten over the little disaster back in January when they banned the program, only to receive tens of thousands of complaints.

Right now, they've made some changes to rule 7, and have banned programs which obtain information directly from Runescape worlds (servers). This means that the Server Status tool, as well as the world switcher tool, is no longer allowed. These tools, being the primary features of Swiftswitch (hence the name), have since been deleted in the latest version of the program (version 2.42). I think Jagex has really gone too far this time and I'm really pissed off with the way they're dealing with these harmless 3rd party programs.

Jagex, please stop forcing poor Strider to slowly destroy his own creation.


Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Posted by Timothy Gold at 4:20 PM |

09 March 2007

Later, Guys!

I am leaving immediately tomorrow morning to take an 8 hour long bus ride to Ipoh. As usual, I will see to it that appropriate measures will be taken to ensure the security of my account.

Remarkably, for the first time ever, homework and textbooks will be the bulk of my luggage. The number of assignments my teachers gave me is ridculous, but at least I now have a good distraction-less 8 hour time period to get the stuff done. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get a connection in Malaysia though; I can't let my stats fall behind.

Anywho, you will not be hearing from me till Tuesday evening when I get back. Until the time of my arrival back in Singapore, I'm gonna try to get as much homework, shopping and eating done during the trip. See ya everyone, enjoy the school holidays!




Stuff achieved today: Lvl 76 Slayer

Posted by Timothy Gold at 11:37 PM |

08 March 2007

The Great Brain Robbery

Yes!!! I've made it past my first school term as a secondary three student.


A screenshot of Harmony, the holy island infested with zombie pirates.

To celebrate the occasion, I decided to indulge a little of my time to complete that newly released quest I had mentioned a few days earlier. The quest, The Great Brain Robbery (TGBR for short), is a sequel to "Rum Deal". The plot involves some undead pirates and this mysterious character named Rabid Jack who has yet to make an appearance (I am given the impression that he is sorta like the leader of the pirates).


A screenshot of Brother Tranquility, one of the monks who had their
bodies switched.

In TGBR, the undead pirates take over some holy town inhabited by monks, and swap the monks' brains with zombie bodies. This has resulted in their original bodies, now braindead, walking around and babbling random gibberish like a bunch of idiots, while the zombie bodies taking up the personalities of the monks. It was up to my avatar to rescue these poor holy men by transferring their brains back to their human bodies and defeating the zombie pirates.


Dr Fenkenstrain, the guy who helped me swap the monks' brains back
to their original bodies.

I accomplished the first task by requesting the help of Dr Fenkenstrain (a character from a previous, un-related quest, I completed) who happened to be an expert on brain surgery. I also managed to thwart the zombies' plan to knock out the monks with sleeping gas, and later proceeded to confronting Mi-Gor, the Chief Surgeon who was in charge of the whole brain transfer thing.

He sent his bodyguard, some monster known as the Barrelchest, after me. It was Lvl 190 and often hit 20's on me. Still managed to kill him in the end though, and I thus forced Mi-gor and his men to leave Harmony. As a reward, I obtained quite a bit of exp (mainly Prayer) as well as the Barrelchest's weapon, a two-handed Anchor which had a special attack.


My character fighting the Barrelchest. Note that the greenish tinge is
the result of the sleeping gas released all over Harmony.

It was a pretty cool quest; not as tough as anticipated, but challenging nonetheless. Thank you for this quality update, Jagex!


Me wielding the Barrelchest's Anchor.


Stuff achieved today: Completed The Great Brain Robbery quest.

Posted by Timothy Gold at 10:54 PM |

06 March 2007

Great Haul This Week!

Yay, my prayers have been answered. As if to make up for the "update-less" week, Jagex has released a rather tough looking quest as well as a huge sound and music update.

The music, all 500+ tracks, played when your avatar is in different areas of Runescape has been improved on. A few new sound effects have also been added into the game, and I strongly feel that the Jagex staff has done a brilliant job this time round.

Although I have yet to even start it, the quest looks very promising. The requirements to finish it are crazy; I need to be able to defeat a Lvl 190 monster without using Prayer, and have to have completed a string of quests beforehand. This new quest, The Great Brain Robbery (don't ask), is certainly guaranteed to give me one heck of a challenge. The requirements alone suggest that this one's tougher than your average quest. I look forward to Thursday, the day when I am most likely to have sufficient free time to begin embarking on this new, little adventure.


Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Posted by Timothy Gold at 6:47 PM |

04 March 2007

Finally, More Level Ups

Yay! Despite having to rush with my homework, I was able to get two level ups last evening.


My character catching Red Salamanders to gain Hunter exp.

It took 3 hours of catching Salamanders, but I finally managed to reach lvl 74. It's fantastic news that I've decided to resume training this skill after quitting it prematurely sometime in December (I fell short of my target of Lvl 75). Also reached lvl 65 Agility today after passing through an Agility shortcut.



My total lvl rank is still quite low though, but hopefully, I'll be able to get it up during the school holidays. I think that it'd be best if I complete most or all of my school assignments while I'm in Malaysia without any access to Runescape, so that I'll have more time to play when I get back. I just pray that I won't decide to slack during the trip.


Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Posted by Timothy Gold at 8:33 PM |

02 March 2007

Holidays & Pking Trips

School holidays are coming up, which means I'm going to start gaining massive exp very soon. The only two things I'm worrying about right now are homework and this trip to Malaysia.

I'll be gone for four out of the nine days of school holidays, which is kinda sad considering that's almost half my Runescape gone. My parents were kind enough to give me a choice between staying and leaving though, however, guilt made me decide to go join them instead of being a bastard and staying at home. I also have my holiday assignments to deal with - it'll be tough completing them while I'm in a hotel room without a computer.


Me trying to kill the Lvl 90+ pker who attacked me. Regrettably, I was
unable to get a screenshot of her clan chasing me out of the Wilderness.

Anyway, nothing much happened today save the pking trip my friend, Titus, had organised. I decided to come as a Warrior for the first time, in a long time, and ended up having to borrow armour and a Rune Scimitar since I had long gotten rid of my Rune set.

It was fun; I was owning this Lvl 90+ until she ran to a deeper part of the wilderness where her clan was stationed. Needless to say, her little friends were pissed and it was my turn to get whacked. As usual, I managed to escape so it was all good.

And, umm... Apparently, there's no update this week. It's already Friday, and no new game additions have yet to be released so I guess I'll just have to wait till next week for one. As some consolation, March's edition of "Behind The Scenes" is now displayed on the Runescape website and the promised updates for the month sound kinda cool. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a one of those tough, "master" quests.


Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Posted by Timothy Gold at 7:17 PM |




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