The Chronicles of Runescape

I had this most delightful conversation with a player at the Edgeville Dungeon today while killing Black Demons:




One could argue, however, that my odds against facing off Jad are a lot better now thanks to my increased Combat level, but stats were never the problem. The trouble lay with me being unable to identify Jad's attack type and switch to the corresponding protection prayer. The graphical update made on the boss monster only compounded things, because the animation and appearance of its attacks completely changed.

I may make a sixth attempt on Jad's life in either late November or December, during my school holidays. Though I'd have ample time by then to kill the Fight Cave's many denizens, it's only a maybe at this point, because I simply lack the motivation to get the Fire Cape. I never cared much about its stat bonuses, even if they were slightly better than a Skill Cape's.

And before I end off this post, you've probably already noted the stunned/incredulous/annoyed smiley I gave Sakis after he had very brusquely made his demand. He thought he'd try to explain himself by telling me about how he had reached the 65th wave of monsters in spite of his lower Combat level, and that I, at level 137, should be expected to take out Jad by now.

Even if I were to pretend that the 65th wave actually does exist (there are only 63), I find myself unconvinced with his mini-argument. I've never viewed the obtainment Fire Cape as some sort of right of passage for high leveled combatants.


Stuff achieved today: Completed Black Demon task

For the last few days, I've been encountering bugs in the game, ranging from the harmless and amusing to glitches that were actually disruptive. My minimap has sudden;y developed this strange tendency to black out on occasion, with only icons and dots remaining visible.

Tiz's name is also mysteriously getting duplicated on Blesschat, and the clones actually sometimes show up on different servers. Zelda experienced a similar problem several times, but that was weeks ago and he was the only one affected. How curious. I find it funny how this bug seems as though as it is capable of spreading like its real-life biological counterpart.

Another glitch I encountered occurred during one of my routine fights with Bork. The creature was down to his final sliver of health, and I wanted to finish him off in style with a well-aimed DDS special attack. I didn't see any damage splats on Bork, but a split-second freeze of the screen indicated that my hits had connected.

However, the short clip of the behemoth dramatically collpasing on the ground that was supposed to follow did not play. Instead, Bork disengaged from our fight and started prancing around the room. I made a second attempt to strike him down, but my avatar stubbornly refused to re-initiate the assault in spite of my repeated clicks on the attack option.

Battered and bruised, I was shortly forced to teleport out of the cavern without my Summoning Charms, as the Dagon'hai Elite, who continued to blast me with his battle magic, was not rendered as passive as Bork and I had suddenly become. I think that it was the DDS spec that had somehow triggered this whole mess, though it could just as easily have been my Bunyip.

It was my first time bringing the familiar there; he had a good several minutes left from a Slayer task, so I had him accompany me for the fight with Bork.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Bloodveld task, completed Dagannoth task

My apologies to any SW fans reading this, but the mini-game was as boring as I had remembered it to be. I also didn't like how a huge portion of my teammates were content to sit around our avatar where they easily outnumbered the enemy, instead of charging towards the Soul Obelisk to regain control of it. I kept getting piled every time I ventured into the area, until I finally gave up and fell back to my base where there were fewer enemies.

At least even losers receive a small reward, unlike many other mini-games. I received two Zeal points for the two lost matches I took part in and exchanged them for Slayer exp. I also asked Nomad about the cost of resurrecting an Abyssal Minion from an Abyssal Demon head. He told me that it'll set me back 85 Zeal points and I nearly fainted.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Abyssal Demon task

It's now being used as a tab to keep track of in-game objectives such as level ups and quests. I thought it was a nifty little add-on, but still couldn't help but feel a slight tinge of disappointment; I thought that the spot would be used as some special function for the mysterious skill Jagex has been mentioning in the Development Diaries.

A new dungeon, the Living Rock Caverns, has also been released. Though home to high leveled, aggressive monsters, the dungeon serves as more of a mine than an actual training ground for Combat. I'll visit it as soon as the hype dies down; I don't wish to compete with half a dozen Miners for a single ore vein.

I may even purchase a Dragon Pickaxe if the place somehow is able to compel me to resume Mining. The Sacred Clay variety wears out too fast...

Stuff achieved today: Completed Fire Giant task, completed Hellhound task, completed Aquanite task

My Guthix Bird finally matured into a raptor yesterday and I decided to give him a place to stay at my menagerie. The only god bird I'm missing is the Zamorak Hawk, but I've already plonked in the egg into the incubator at the Yanille pet store and will be collecting the newly hatched chick soon enough. As feisty as Zamorak Hawks typically are, I still hope it'll be able to get along with the other menagerie residents when I let the bird live there after it reaches adulthood.

I'll probably move on to raising a chameleon after that. I still don't have the Summoning level, but I reckon I can gain the necessary 250k odd exp by the time the hawk is fully grown. Lapalok had just given me another Waterfiend task.

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Mithril Sword Fight by Arrow Gun 99 - Funny, especially with the anti-climatic ending, but it was still nothing special.

Gnarlie and the Gaming Factory by KKcomics - I didn't like the parody. The little punchline at the end about Jagex employing Oompa Loompas was meh-ish.

Linedancing by Jinsr44 - The transition between the various scenes was nicely executed, and the dance itself was well done. The making of this two-minute clip also smacks of effort.

In the end, I voted for Video Ideas by Excl as my favourite. The poll's been out for only a few hours (possibly shorter), but I'm fairly certain that Excl will emerge as the winner. His work has the best voice acting and it is by far the most humorous of the six. Other Runescapers seem to share that same sentiment. Excl's vid has amassed over 40% of the player votes thus far.


Stuff achieved today: Completed Waterfiend task, Completed Kalphite task

It doesn't have the wow factor of RuneTek 4 (when Runescape HD first came out), since much emphasis has been placed on fine tuning the Standard Detail mode as well as low profile stuff such as scripting, but I appreciate the update nonetheless. The minimap's received a new look and I get these little icons popping up whenever I hover my cursor on certain objects in the game.

The spellbook's also been altered to keep things more organized, though I think it was more of a separate update than an actual part of the game engine upgrade. Jagex also slipped in several changes to the NPC shop system, making it such that these shop owners no longer offer an unlimited amount of stock. The sale of goods has become more personalised and a set number of items can be sold to each player, which is somewhat like a rationing system.

It has the advantage of removing the unrealistic feature of infinite stock, which, according to Jagex, had "weird effects on the economy, but I'm annoyed that it's severely limited the number of certain items I can buy at a time. Take bananas as an example, which I use for farming payments. I need five baskets full, or 25 bananas, per Curry tree, but the Charter Ship general store now only sells 10 at a time.

Stuff achived today: Nothing much