The Chronicles of Runescape: April 2009

29 April 2009

Minor Updates

The main piece of gaming content Jagex had been planning to release this week was found to have bugs, so only a few minor changes were made during yesterday's system update.

Among these small additions were a new hairstyle for female avatars, the pet ownership limit being doubled and an improvement to the Summoning Familiar interface.

For this week only, Lilies of the Valley can be found in all parts of
Gielinor.

A mini Holiday Event was also included. To celebrate the start of May, Lilies have sprouted all over Gielinor, which can be plucked by players and wielded. However, they'll be removed from the game after next week's system update, very much like their cabbage counterparts on April Fools' Day.

An unimpressive dull week, but I'm sure Jagex will make it up by next Wednesday.

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Posted by Timothy Gold at 10:28 PM | Permalink

27 April 2009

Buskers

I'm a tad bit late, but I wish to discuss the latest Development Diary on Run Energy, which was published a few days ago.

The concept's simple enough. Jagex wanted to find a way for players to quickly restore their Run Energy, but instead of implementing more conventional ideas such as benches, they've chosen the more unorthodox route of introducing NPC buskers to the game. According to the article, players who gather around these wandering buskers would have their energy restored more rapidly.

Buskers receive a custom look based on their city of origin.

I would've preferred a portable seat to carry around; the leprechaun on the sun chair in the Troll Stronghold certainly came to mind as I read the diary. But though it would compromise practicality slightly, I suppose having these colourful music-makers spread around Gielinor's many cities would be a more aesthetically pleasing alternative. I am very satisfied with the concept art.

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Posted by Timothy Gold at 9:04 PM | Permalink

25 April 2009

Exp Lamps

Lucky break!

As it turns out, there is a secondary reward for completing the Tale of the Muspah. According to Runescape Wiki, the Natural Historian from the quest would give me two exp lamps if I were to pay him a visit. Though each lamp only awards its user a measly 200 exp, this portable source of experience is exactly what I need for my level 99 Construction screenshot.

The Natural Historian who aided me with the identification of the frozen
Muspah.

The timing of the quest's release is near-perfect, as I only have a 200k exp gap to close before reaching the much anticipated level up. Progress is not nearly as fast as I had wished, but it at least hasn't ground to a complete halt in spite of real life busy-ness.

On an even more positive note, there's the issue of getting someone to appear in the screenshot, which I've more or less already resolved. I'm going with Zelda's initial advice and will invite fellow RS blogger, Kitt Fox. The best case scenario is that she says yes and we agree to meet up sometime next weekend for the level up; a tricky feat due to our ridiculously huge timezone difference.

Stuff achieved today: Level 86 Summoning

Posted by Timothy Gold at 10:59 PM | Permalink

23 April 2009

The Tale Of The Muspah

Tuesday saw the release of yet another quest, the Tale of the Muspah, from Jagex.

Its official description promised that adventurers would get to "discover the dark secrets of one of the most fearsome races ever to walk in Gielinor", which I was quite skeptical about after noting the quest's appallingly low requirements. Only level 10 Magic and Woodcutting were needed, and the Mining and Firemaking criteria were in the single digits.

Me setting up rafts on fire to melt the icicles surrounding the block of ice.

The rewards were equally paltry, but the quest itself was more commendable. In what first appeared to be a story-arc of little significance to the general history of Gielinor, the Tale of the Muspah actually shed some light to the mysterious Mahjarrat.

Erjolf, a young Fremennik boy, claimed to have seen a special suit of armour encased in a block of ice in a cave, and wanted me to retrieve it for him. He hoped to present the armour to the Fremennik in order to fulfill his rite of passage.

With the icicles cleared, it was now evident that a monster lay within

the block of ice, not a set of armour.

I succeeded in clearing away the stalagmite-icicles surrounding the armour, but was unable to melt the block of ice. However, the block's contents were now visible and we discovered that the armour Erjolf had seen was actually a frozen monster. With the help of a Natural Historian and a learned old man named Ali the Wise, I identified the strange creature as a Muspah, a supposedly fictional folk-tale beast, and discovered a way to melt the ice block with a magical enchantment.

The Muspah, which has just jolted back to life.

To our great astonishment, the Muspah sprung to life as soon as it was freed from its icy prison and transformed into a Mahjarrat, who introduced himself as Jhallan. He explained that he had taken the form of a Muspah unwittingly as a result of a nightmare he had during his comatose state. The transformation had cost him a great deal of energy, and the weakened Jhallan requested that I help him to perform a hibernation ritual to restore his powers.

After relocating to a safer area, I aided Jhallan in the ritual and he was once more shut off from the world by a layer of ice. Prior to that, however, the shapeshifting mage grudgingly agreed to conjure up a Muspah tail as a trophy for Erjolf to present to his kinsfolk, so that he wouldn't look for him and interrupt his deep sleep again. I handed the young Fremennik his prize, bringing an end to the quest.

Jhallan conjuring up a Muspah tail for Erjolf.

Stuff achieved today: Completed the Tale of the Muspah quest

Posted by Timothy Gold at 11:21 PM | Permalink

20 April 2009

An IRL Blog II

I've made up my mind and have decided to go ahead with creating an IRL blog, which can be found here.

My new online journal's actually been up for a fortnight already, but I only bothered to type out something yesterday after days of procrastination. I've chosen to not follow a fixed posting schedule, unlike for my RS blog. Instead, I'll only add new entries whenever I feel I have any pressing issues that I'd like to discuss. I also wish to clarify that I will be maintaining the current one post per couple of days for the Chronicles of Runescape.

I hope you'll find the site a pleasant read!

Stuff achieved today: Gained 100k Construction exp

Posted by Timothy Gold at 11:02 PM | Permalink

18 April 2009

Easter Event - 2009

The "expiry date" of the Easter holiday event draws near, so I decided to complete it today while I still had the time.

Easter Bunny Jr lazing about in his room.

As with previous years, the Easter Bunny has encountered some problems with his holiday preparations, and required my help to get the event underway. This Easter, the bunny's troubles take the form of his spoilt and lazy son who is extremely hesitant to take over the family business. As a result of his negligence, the Egg Plant, the factory where Easter Eggs are produced, has fallen to a state of disrepair.

The Easter Egg painting machine in the Egg Plant.

Through fixing up the Easter Bunny's base of operations and a little persuasion, I was able to convince Easter Bunny Jr to take over his father's job, in order for the latter to peacefully retire. I was rewarded with a giant carrot for my services and also unlocked a special Easter-themed emote.

Me wielding the oversized carrot

I received from the Easter Bunny.

Neat-o.

Stuff achieved today: Completed the 2009 Easter Event

Posted by Timothy Gold at 9:02 PM | Permalink

17 April 2009

Plans For Zanaris

I've noted that Jagex didn't release any new content this week, but they've added a new entry to the Development Diary archive.

The concept art of fairy tree-houses

The article discusses a graphical improvement project planned for Zanaris. Both the fairy city and its denizens are going to receive a completely new look, quite possibly in the near future. No actual screenshots are available yet, but a few pieces of concept art have been included in this latest Development Diary, so players would have some idea of the appearance of the revamp.

The concept art of Zanaris's overall appearance

While the Jagex art team is doing a commendable job, I am not as keen towards the improvements as I would like to be. Though I appreciate the importance of aesthetics, graphical updates don't usually bring about the same level of enjoyment or excitement as other types of gaming content.

And compared with previously redesigned cities such as Varrock, Falador and Al Kharid, Zanaris is considerably more remote, so I will not be able to visit and enjoy the changes as often as I'd like to.

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Posted by Timothy Gold at 10:51 PM | Permalink

14 April 2009

Five Years

I celebrate my Runescape account's fifth birthday today.

I probably should've done something like bake a cake to commemorate the event, but chose not to out of laziness. Regardless, it was still a good day despite my lethargy. I played a couple of rounds of Stealing Creation and crippled my opponents by robbing and killing their mages, which helped my team claim two decisive victories.

Beyond that, I didn't do much else besides Smithing and Farming. Hmm... I probably should get to work on that Easter holiday event soon.

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Posted by Timothy Gold at 9:18 PM | Permalink

12 April 2009

Wikis & Wealth

Wow! Although I have already expressed my gratitude in-game, I wish to thank Zelda once more for taking the initiative to write up an article about Blessings on the Runescape Clans Wiki.

The second paragraph under the "Description" section made me wince, but I suppose it beats reading a candy-coated history of the clan. A wiki is supposed to inform and not advertise after all, though I couldn't resist smirking at the list of blog links Zelda included at the bottom of the page.

But moving on, Easter has brought forth great tidings for me, in the form of stacks and stacks of shiny gp. Ranarrs have been on the rise lately, so I decided to place my entire stock up for sale in the Grand Exchange a few nights ago. The last herb was bought up earlier today, and I was able to cash in a total of a little over 100 million.

Depositing all those coins into my bank account gave me no small sense of satisfaction.

Stuff achieved today: Gained 100k Construction exp

Posted by Timothy Gold at 10:24 PM | Permalink

10 April 2009

Opening The Floodgates

Keeping in line with their policy on achieving better communication with their customers, Jagex granted relatively experienced F2P players (12.5 million total exp and above) access to the Runescape forums yesterday.

Though I personally feel that the criterion should be set higher at somewhere between the 15 to 20 million total exp range, allowing high leveled F2Pers to start up threads would give the forums a fresh influx of novel and useful ideas for Jagex to (hopefully) utilise.

Having been a Runescape member for close to four years now, I haven't really given much thought towards the issue of giving Free players this privellege. But after yesterday, I'm actually surprised that Jagex hadn't done so earlier. I'm generally unconcerned about the spam which may result due to inconsiderate F2Pers. Incoherent and nonsensical threads in the forums have always been a problem, even though P2Pers are stereotypically seen as being more mature.

My only worry is with P2P players who may be less open towards this recent development.

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Posted by Timothy Gold at 9:02 PM | Permalink

08 April 2009

Brassica Prime

The game went through a system update, and this year's Easter holiday event is now out, which was reasonably cool.

As expected, the April Fools' Day animated cabbages were also restored back to normal. Having already taken screenshots of the event, I wasn't unduly concerned until I spoke to Zelda just minutes after the update. He informed me a little belatedly that players who had made the trip down to Oo'glog before the server reset would've gotten to see a giant, sentient cabbage.

So yes, I totally missed out on taking what would have been an epically comical screenshot of the colossal vegetable. And to add insult to injury, none of the other cabbages retained the ability to be wielded.

Just before logging out for the server reset, I wielded a cabbage and filled all my inventory slots with steel bars in a vain attempt to bypass the change. However, when I logged back in, I saw that the cabbage had somehow wrenched itself out of my avatar's hands and was now on the floor, directly below me.

Stuff achieved today: Gained 100k Construction exp

Posted by Timothy Gold at 9:13 PM | Permalink

06 April 2009

Troubleshooting

Success! Level 98 Construction!

With just a level away until the big double-nines, I'm now under pressure to make the necessary arrangements for the level 99 screenshot. I wish to level up in my house, but I think that the Workshop looks a bit too plain. However, it'll be exceedingly difficult to gain Construction exp in the other rooms, because I won't have access to a workbench to make flatpacks. Constructing a piece of furniture in its fully assembled form doesn't seem like a good solution either, as I'll have to enter Building Mode in order to pull it off.

Using a Genie Lamp from a Random Event seems like the best option at the moment, but it'll require some measure of luck for me to receive it at just the right moment. Though I am very likely to experience at least one Random Event between now and the day of the 99 screenshot, the lamp is unbankable so if I were to receive it too early, I would have little choice but to spend the exp prematurely because I don't want it wasting a slot of my inventory.

Mat (center) has just reached level 99 Attack.

Mat must be laughing at me now for eating up all of Maggie's Goulash. He took screenshots of his 99 Attack level up yesterday with little difficulty.

Oh, and there's still the issue of finding suitable friend to appear with me in the screenshot. *sigh* Decisions, decisions...

Stuff achieved today: Level 98 Construction

Posted by Timothy Gold at 9:53 PM | Permalink

04 April 2009

Glorious Memories

I started the Glorious Memories quest sometime in the evening and finished it before the day ended.

I'm impressed with how Jagex was able to provide the backstory of five seemingly unrelated characters in a single quest. Players who complete Glorious Memories would get to find out the origins of King Vargas's curse and even reverse it, as well as see Asleif (from the Mountain Daughter quest) in action when she was still alive. Snippets of Baba Yaga's, Mawnis Burrowgar's and Chieftain Brundt's past are also revealed.

During the quest, I was tasked to get Brundt, Mawnis and Vargas to reconcile with each other in time for the former's birthday feast. Initially close friends, they had a huge falling out after a failed attempt to obtain a certain prophecy tablet several years ago.

The mishap left much bitterness between the then young adventurers. Vargas went through a gradual transformation into a Yeti due to a curse, and blamed Brundt for leading the group into the doomed expedition. Brundt didn't get the prophecy and accused Mawnis of stealing it, while the latter lost his brother-in-law during their quest for the tablet.

Mawnis's brother-in-law was cursed and transformed into a Yeti

during their journey to retrieve the prophecy. I had to defeat and then

put him to rest.

By resolving these issues, I was able to restore the friendship between the three of them, thus completing the quest. However, Jagex left a most intriguing twist at the end of the Glorious Memories storyline. I managed to retrieve the long-lost tablet from Baba Yaga (as it turned out, she was the one who had stolen it), and discovered that the prophecy contained my Fremennik name and that it was actually about me!

Chieftain Brundt's birthday feast.

The catch to this shocking revelation? The prophecy was woefully incomplete. In its entirety, the prophecy consisted of five tablets and it was established earlier in the quest that Chieftain Brundt once owned the first four, but got rid of them after he failed to recover the last one. This potential cliffhanger Jagex cheekily left behind could signal the eventual release of subsequent installments of the Fremennik storyline.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Glorious Memories quest

Posted by Timothy Gold at 11:18 PM | Permalink

02 April 2009

Post April Fools' Day

There was another system update this evening, but the animated cabbages from the April Fools' gag are still present.

A Jagex mod clarified in the Recent Updates forum that they'll be here to stay until the next reboot, when April's second batch of updates are introduced. Though I agree that the bobbing vegetables would really be out of place if they were made a permanent fixture, I hope that they'll still retain their wieldability even after the next system update. It'd be just like having another Rubber Chicken.

And while I'm still on the topic of weapons (if you could call them that), I reached level 95 Smithing today and am able to make Rune Battleaxes. Rune Chainbodies are next up at level 96, but with roughly 900k exp separating me from the level up, I could be in for a long grind.

Stuff achieved today: Level 95 Smithing

Posted by Timothy Gold at 10:56 PM | Permalink

01 April 2009

Cabbage Mayhem

Yes! A new quest!

Though not much of a fan of the Fremennik storyline, I am excited about facing the challenge which the Master rank of Glorious Memories promises to offer. However, due to its high rating, I am only intending to complete the quest either during the weekend or Friday night, when I have more time to spare.

Me attempting to pick up a cackling cabbage at the cabbage field, just South of Falador.

While its complexity compared to other quests is apparent, the release of Glorious Memories certainly did not overshadow a secondary (and ridiculously conspicuous) update, which Jagex had tried to discreetly slip in as an April Fool's joke. Cabbages in fields all over Gielinor have been animated and granted the ability of speech.

They immediately spring to life whenever a player plucks one out of the ground, and the liberated vegetable would then proceed to hop randomly around the area. As an added bonus, any freed cabbages may be caught by players and even wielded as a weapon, albeit a thoroughly ineffective one.

The cabbages can be wielded.

The update easily takes the spot as one of Runescape's most humorous pieces of gaming content, even rivalling My Arm's Big Adventure. I couldn't help but crack a grin at my notebook's LCD monitor as I watched the crazed cabbages leap past my avatar.