ForsakenMage's Blog

Living in California, it didn't always mean the stereotypical sunshine and warm weather. It meant depending on which part of the state you lived in, it could be really warm if you were living out by the desert or pretty muggy in the middle of July.

Wait, California has deserts? Yes, and snowy mountain peaks too. It's only a four hour drive from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe, CA.

Winters where I live in in California have been significantly cooler and wetter over the past few years. The past week alone has been non-stop rain, and it nearly drove me crazy. Sure it's not as bad as the snow storms the Midwest and East Coast had to deal with, but it was bad enough to cause some nuisances around here like flooded roads and downed trees when the winds were gusting at over 50mph/80kmph.

Several times this past week while going to and from class, I had to find alternative routes because of deep ponds that were forming around the sewer drains and depressions in the ground on campus. My umbrella turned inside out a few times, but thankfully did not break. Yet. :???: My jeans, sneakers, and socks were already soaked through due to the rain going sideways thanks to the wind, so there wasn't much more I could do other than avoid getting more water in my sneakers. By the time I did get home, I was pretty much numb from the waist down. >.<

I honestly thought the rain season would be over after the series of storms we got out here in December, but they came right back in February. And we're supposed to get more rain next week. :wall: Hi again to the snowy peaks and elevations of barely at 3000-ft. (914.4m) while temperatures fall to freezing.

Time to invest in some galoshes, extra pairs of leggings to wear underneath my pants, and unpack the winter coats. The groundhog lied. It's gonna be a long winter. :evil:

Despite all the "changes" that have recently been put back into the game, I've decided to mostly ignore it, mostly because I don't see it as something so drastically important that I need to dedicate time to it.

Instead, I'm going the complete opposite route.

For the past few years, I've been making it a point to not do anything combat related in RuneScape for the entire duration of the Lunar New Year celebration, and two weeks after that. This means a whole month dedicated to pure skilling. In years past I've done woodcutting, firemaking, fishing, and crafting. This year I'm planning to mine. This may mean I might just get 99 mining after all after having attempted to last summer but failing because it was just too boring.

What started this tradition was simply the superstition that doing anything remotely violent during the new year celebrations meant I'd face more violence that year. Not that I entirely believe this superstition, but better safe than sorry. :P

So some of you will find me at the Living Rock Caverns mining the concentrated old ore in world 77. I have about 78k gold ores left to level 99 mining, and I usually mine about 3k a day with school, more during the weekends. :P

Anyway, in regards to the wilderness and free trade returning, I've found myself needing to turn rather Scroogey in some ways. For one thing, I realized just how much my so-called friends really considered me a friend. Last night I was bombarded with "OMG WHEN IS THE UPDATE COMING?! YOU SHOULD KNOW! JAGEX TELLS YOU ALL." It was rather saddening to see that those I considered friends were merely using me as a tool for their update news, not to mention their bank. As much as I'd like to help all 200 of my friends, there is simply no way I can go and choose a random 15 or so people to give away rares.

Simply put: I won't be giving anyone anything. This sounds awfully selfish, but I don't want to make it seem like I favor one friend over the other. :unsure:

Free trade may be nice and all, but honestly if you're gonna just beg for free stuff and get used to that rather than working for your items, then you're no better than a scammer. :unsure:

Anyway...

祝你們新年快樂﹗恭喜發財﹗身體健康﹗(Happy Lunar New Year. May you have a prosperous healthy year! :shades:)

I had meant to write an entry, but as you can tell I usually don't blog anyway. XD

So it's been about a year and a bit over a month since I got P2P on my main. And honestly I have no regrets. Sure I lost my status as one of the higher skill-total F2Pers, but I gained a renewed interest in the game as well, not to mention even more friends.

As of now, I have achieved at least three P2P stats to the 90s, including Thieving (99), Fletching (90), and Slayer (90). I've also managed to get 80+ in Herblore (80), Farming (81), and Summoning (85, with enough charms to get me to 93 at the moment). The rest unfortunately are in the 70s, but I can deal with them later.

As you can tell from my signature, I got my quest cape pretty fast. I still have yet to get a fire cape (5-0 Jad), and still need to try to get full void. But all in all I guess I'm pretty happy having made this switch.

So let's talk about the Wilderness & Free Trade instead! It's the talk of the community for the most part, with a majority of the votes going for their return. And now it's officially been announced that it's going to return on February 1st.

Most of you know my opinion on the vote, that I was okay with the old Wilderness coming back but not Free Trade, so I voted no. Not surprisingly I got quite a bit of flames for my choice in game. They thought I was crazy to think that the prices were going to skyrocket once everything was said and done with the vote. I wonder what they're thinking now as they're trying to buy their supplies. Currently Super Restores (4) are at 13.5k each median, while Super Sets (4) are going for about a total of 3.8k each and rising. Rune Armour sets are also rising, now above 170k each. This trend will continue until close to the release date, and chances are the market will crash hard once that does happen. We can thank the merchant clans who a majority of us hate, who now have a schedule to play with to once again manipulate the prices sky high. Hate to say it to the PKers, but I told you so. :P Have fun trying to buy your stuff. But it isn't just the PKer. Skillers are also facing an increase in raw materials as well. Herbs needed for the potions that PKers commonly use are going up, ores are going up, etc.

Honestly, with free trade, merchant clans will have more power than some think. That might not seem the case now, especially since we really have no reference. There were solo merchants back in the days of free trade, and many of them managed to get quite a profit. But now with the large number of merchanting clans, they can easily take advantage of the market and control the prices even more. The GE put restrictions on how fast the prices can raise. Imagine without that restriction.

So prices may go down, but would they go back down to what we're used to and what we want? Or will merchant clans completely take over? Who knows.

On the real life bit...

I'm currently finishing up my last semester hopefully at the college I'm at now and will hopefully start working on my therapist license starting this coming Fall. ^_^

After a much needed hiatus, ForsakenMage finally decided that it was time to move on. At first I protested, telling her we had to wait until at least my final examinations were done and over with, but in the end I gave her to key to let her pass into the world that Pengew had shown me. On top of a Human Biology exam and dealing with the upcoming holiday mayhem, ForsakenMage helped me thank Pengew for her guidance and taking care of me the past few months. Pengew merely grinned, looking pretty self-satisfied with her levels and accomplishments, then went off on her own merry way to worlds unknown.

I'd be lying if I said that the first week of wandering around P2P was easy.

"Come on! We need to work on Construction! I want to put my clothes somewhere finally!" There goes about five million...

"Come on! We need to work on Herblore! I want to try out those crazy potions people always talked about!" There goes another three million...

"Oh oh! Agility! Let's try that place in Brimhaven people are talking about!" There goes my sanity...

"ForsakenMage! Slow down!" I scolded. "Why are you in such a hurry anyway?"

"Well..." She glanced over self--dragon chain mail, dragon plated skirt, dragon boots, and an abyssal whip--and then though over her skills, nearly all except summoning closing in on level 50 or more. "You only have about three weeks of vacation left right?"

"Right."

"I want to beat Pengew."

"What?"

"She has over 240 quest points! I'm still at 226! I want to do more quests!"

"Don't you think we better level up some of your stats a bit?"

"And she can play air guitar! I want to play air guitar!"

"Erm, yes I suppose, but-"

"So let's go!"

"Hold it, missy!" I had to tug ForsakenMage back by the edge of her achievement cape. "Slow down. You know I can't keep up with you like this. We've been hardcore questing for two weeks or so now. Don't you want to try to level up a little bit?"

"No! Not until I need to for quests."

"Not even to get the minimum stats needed to finish all of them in one go?"

"We're saving that for achievement diaries. I want to finish the quests now!"

See what I have to deal with? An overly obsessed character wanting to finish the quests and get as much music as possible. This was going to be a long winter "vacation.":ohnoes:

ForsakenMage decided to go on vacation. After many long years, she decided it was time for a break, and took off on her own to my dismay. Now and again she'll come back, make a few necklaces, then zoom off again to some random part of the Kingdom of Misthalin.

Before she left, I asked her who would keep me company during her absence. She thought for a moment.

"Xin Anmi can keep you company."

"Xin Anmi?"

"My protege."

"Since when did you have a protege?"

"Since you weren't paying too much attention. She's a fairly decent fisher."

"Combat?" I received a smart rap on the head with the pommel of ForsakenMage's Rune Scimitar. "Hey! That hurt!"

"Does it matter what combat she is? She could prove to be a great companion."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well for one thing she's been to Taverly."

"Wait, what?"

"And Camelot, Catherby, the Gnome Agility Course-"

"Wait, wait, wait! Hold on a second! Are you telling me she's -"

"Yes, she's one of them."

I just stared at ForsakenMage for a moment, then winced, and finally cringed. "You're going to toss me out into a strange world with little to no guidance?"

"I'm sure she knows what to do."

"Are you kidding me?! That's another nine skills I need to read up on so that we can cooperate! And that's on top of the other fifteen that I need to update myself on!"

ForsakenMage showed no sympathy. "It's high time you've studied some more anyway." With a flourish, she threw a copy of A Hitchhiker's Guide to the P2P Worlds of RuneScape and started to pack up her bag. "You'll be fine."

Saradomin, have pity on me!

"See you later! I'll send Xin Anmi right away to you."

"Wait, what...?!" There wasn't much else I could do as ForsakenMage disappeared before me. A few moments later, a girl wearing a pink stylish hat, a pink shirt, a pink short skirt, pink boots, and a pink cape wandered over to me. The only thing that wasn't pink was her Games Necklace and the gold glint that I saw from her finger that was I later on found out was her Ring of Charos.

"Hey! I'm Xin Anmi, but you can call me Pengew! Are we all ready to go, partner?"

"Um, yea, but can I ask you a favor first?"

"What is it?" Pengew asked eagerly.

"Tone the pink down."

"Okay!" Pengew skipped over to the bank, coming back wearing Lederhosen shorts, a brown apron, and Myre snelm. "Is this okay?"

"Erm, on second thought, go back to the pink."

"Okay!" As Pengew skipped away to change, I hit my head on the desk a few times. She really had no proper sense of decency. Both outfits were short and skimpy, but at least the pink looked more presentable.

"So what are we going to do today, Ami?"

"Can you slay dragons yet?"

"Um, yea, but I need to use a lot of food."

"What about abyssal demons?"

"Don't know how."

"Do you know how to catch shark?"

"Can't, too weak."

Oh god.

"So what can you do?"

"Um, I can fish herring."

This was going to be a long... oh shoot, ForsakenMage didn't even say how long she was going to be gone! I must've looked horrified because Pengew looked at me worriedly.

"Ami? Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh yea, fine. Let's just go see what quests we can do in the meantime. How are your combat skills exactly?"

"Um..."

"Don't answer that."

"Okay."

:wall: