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Troacctid

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Blog Entries posted by Troacctid

  1. Troacctid
    The reason I titled this blog "Troacctid's Gielinor Review" was, see, I had this plan that I would type up reviews of the new content, and that would be the context in which I voice my opinion on "Runescape current events and stuff." So even though I already wrote more than one entry today, I'm going to write another, because I want to talk about this update. I figure that there's always a chance that Jagex Moderators are looking at me because they value my insight on their work, and I feel a need to harness that attention to steer them in the right direction. After all, where would they be without the expert guidance of some random guy who's never designed a game in his life? :thumbsup:
     
    Now that I've lost your attention, allow me to talk about Display Names.
     
    This is one of those updates that's kind of boring, but functional. It's a nuts-and-bolts kind of thing. Sure, it's not new content. Sure, there aren't even any patches this week. But let's face it: we can't get a new Living Rock Caverns every week. It just isn't feasible. I don't expect it, you shouldn't expect it. Hell, I think we get that stuff too frequently. A lot of it could benefit from more time in QA. So I don't mind.
     
    Runescape has always had pretty bland usernames, with a short character limit, no case sensitivity, and every other name trailing along a string of several random-looking numbers at the beginning, middle, or end. Well, no more! I'm sure most of you have already experienced the sort of changes this update has wrought: players mildly dissatisfied with their current names have shucked them off, replacing them with sleeker, shinier, more exciting ones! It's like the U.S. government's cash-for-clunkers program, where people mildly dissatisfied with their merely-adequate vehicles can trade them in for sleeker, shinier, more fuel-efficient ones! With government subsidies! In this case, there's no subsidy, but the service is free, so it amounts to the same thing.
     
    There's nothing wrong with wanting to change your username. We can't all have thought of names as awesome as "Troacctid" when first creating our accounts. In fact, for those unlucky souls with crappy names like "Pkerjoe2718" or "Pwnage8979323," it's pretty much the Runescape equivalent of giving homeless guys free apartments. Or at least a fresh set of clothes. So I like this update, even if it has little to no effect on my gameplay.
     
    Actually, I confess: I changed my own username. Yes, even I, with an awesome name like Troacctid, found room for improvement. Specifically, I changed my name to all lowercase, the way it is on Tip.It. I like it better that way. Thanks, Display Names!
     
    You know the most amazing part of this update? It's been done without any major bugs or data loss, despite all of the technical obstacles involved. That's impressive.
     
    The bottom line: this update is all upside. While it's not a hugely significant change, and things are a little hectic the first week as everyone is changing names at once, there's really nothing to complain about, and I think it improves the game. This is far from a Top 10 update, but it effectively accomplishes what it was meant to accomplish.
  2. Troacctid
    Let me start by saying I happen to have a high-school economics textbook handy, and I've been reading through it a lot lately. (Why? Because I'm in high school and I'm taking an economics class. Don't look at me like that. Geez.) The more I go through these basic economic concepts in the first few chapters, the more I find myself thinking, "Yup, that's just like in Runescape." Does that make me weird, a good critical thinker, or both? An economics professor might say it's because you can apply economics everywhere, and my initial thought is, "Yeah, you keep telling yourself that." But it's true. You can't go two paragraphs in this thing without a Gielinorian analogue.
     
    Look, here's an excerpt right out of the first page of the first section of the first chapter:
    "To look at the world economically, we can focus on the decisions that people make. You, for example, have to decide what to do with your time--go to a movie or study for a test. Businesses have to decide how many people to employ and how much to produce. A city government may have to decide whether to spend its budget to build a school or a park."
     
    And in my head I'm thinking, "Runescape players have to decide whether they want to go PVPing, level their skills, or quest."
     
    Look, right in the second section. Opportunity cost. Seems like nobody understands opportunity costs in Runescape. Turns out it really is one of the first things they teach you in Economics 101. "Every decision we make involves trade-offs." the textbook offers. "For example, if you choose to spend more time at work, you give up watching a movie or going to a baseball game." Or if you choose to mine pure essence, you can't use that time to train your runecrafting.
     
    I have this urge to just re-write an entire chapter of the textbook using only example from Runescape. So many players have no idea how to apply basic economic principles. It would be so informative and relevant, and yet...so uninformative and irrelevant.
     
    Maybe I should. Maybe I should just write a whole essay on this crap. Maybe I should show it to my teacher. Extra credit?
     
    Students always complain how this stuff isn't useful in real life. Maybe not, but at least it's useful in video games.
  4. Troacctid
    Today I'd like to take the time to plug three cool things that you should check out while you're waiting for me to actually write something original. Well, I've written quite a lot of original things recently (I'm in two different writing classes this quarter, so I have a bunch of silly little short things that I've written for school). I just haven't posted them here cuz they didn't seem "bloggy" or "RuneScapey".
     
    Anyway, instead, I'mma point out some other cool things that you should check out.
     

     
    This is GrindScape. As far as I know, it's the only regularly-updating RuneScape webcomic out there. (If you know of any more, drop a comment on this entry!) And it's not bad. If you like RuneScape and you like webcomics, give it a look. It's still young, so if you jump in now, you can read all the archives without having to stay up all night! Quick!
     
    If any of my readers are or have young'uns, I suppose I should warn you that it contains explicit language and stuff. So heads-up, I guess.
     
    Their website is http://grindscapecomic.com/.
     
     

     
    Magic cards with googly eyes.
     
    'Nuff said.
     

     
    And lastly, Super Smash Land. It's a demake of Super Smash Bros. So, it's like if Smash Bros were a Gameboy game. And as you can see from the trailer, it's pretty sweet.
     
    Yes, it is a playable game, with three different gameplay modes (Classic, Endless, and Versus), four starting characters (Pikachu, Link, Mario, and Kirby), two unlockable characters (Megaman and Vaporeon), and, oh, you can download it for free! The official website is http://supersmashland.com/. If you're a fan of Smash Bros (and who isn't?), I guarantee you'll at least get a kick out of it.
     
     
    Okay, that's my plugs for the week. Well, okay, one more, a little more self-serving: W22 Fishing is recruiting! We could use some more hands to work the Fishadel. Interested in cheap, quick mining/firemaking/smithing/woodcutting xp? Visit this thread.
     
    Anyway. 'S good stuff. Have fun.
  5. Troacctid
    I haven't been around here much lately, have I? It's probably because I'm spending more time over at TV Tropes, which is a different place that is also cool.
     
    If you've been missing my blog (which would be very sweet of you), you might be interested in some of the unrelated things I've been writing about over there that I could just as easily have posted here, but didn't. Well, I guess I am now, but you get the idea.
     

    My alliterative review of VVVVVV
    My review of The Count of Monte Cristo
    My review of Guitar Hero: World Tour
    My review of Portal
    My review of Frankenstein
    Uh...this thing I wrote about...stuff...well, anyway, it's untitled.
  6. Troacctid

    Damnation!

    By Troacctid,

    You are instructed to move an ability from one color to another. This ability must be something used in every set (i.e. discard, direct damage, card drawing etc.). You may not choose an ability that has already been color shifted by R&D. What ability do you shift and to what color do you shift it? Explain why you would make that shift.
     

     
    Currently, mass creature destruction is a primary ability in white, and secondary in black. Blacks mass kill effects tend to be limited or conditional--Hex, Consume the Meek, Infest, Barter in Blood, and so on--while white gets the big, unconditional sweepers like Day of Judgement. I would shift whites slice of mass removal into black.
     
    There are strong mechanical and creative reasons why black should have access to mass creature kill. For one, black is the color of death, so it shouldnt be surprising for it to kill indiscriminately--thats what should be expected from a significant burst of black mana. Black is also the color most willing to sacrifice its own creatures, and the color best-positioned to take advantage of a well-stocked graveyard through reanimation spells. For further synergy, blacks ability to attack the opponents hand allows it to cripple the foes ability to recover afterwards.
     
    All of blacks biggest core mechanics and characteristics lend themselves well to mass creature destruction; white, on the other hand, is more conflicted. One of whites most iconic strategies is the weenie rush, and thats not usually the sort of strategy that wants to nuke the board. Day of Judgement as a white spell creates tension, forcing white in two different directions as its Ajani Goldmane and Honor of the Pure demand lots of creatures to pump while its sweepers want as few creatures as possible to maximize value. Flavor-wise, while black views its creatures as expendable, white (although it understands that some losses are acceptable) is much more likely to want to protect them.
     
    Logically, this should leave black with simple mass destruction such as Damnation, with white restricted to spells such as Planar Cleansing that, although perhaps more thorough, require a larger mana investment.
     

  8. Troacctid
    The Temple at Senntisten: The slings and Zaros of outrageous fortune


     
     
    For our latest quest, we've been asked to retrieve some ancient artifacts to restore the Zarosian temple unearthed at the Digsite. Let me tell you my initial reaction to this quest. I saw the title and thought, "Senntisten was the Zarosian capital at the Digsite. Hmm." I read the description (quoted above) and thought, "Dr. Nabanik is a Mahjarrat. Who would have business in the Digsite? Probably Azzanadra. Hmm." Then I logged into the game and saw this:
     

     
    And I thought, "ZAROS IS BACK." (Not in capital letters, but you get the idea.)
     
    [hide=The Plot (spoilers)]Well, as it turns out, I kind of nailed it early on. This quest deals with Azzanadra's attempt to contact Zaros, continuing the Mahjarrat storyline. It ties up some loose ends, particularly in regards to the Super Barriow Bros. You do that thing where the person who starts the quest isn't really the person who starts the quest, because they ask you to talk to somebody else immediately. (Ever notice how a lot of quests do that?) Mercifully, Ali the Wise/Wahisietel (hint: when you disguise yourself, don't pick a false name that's an anagram of your real name) gives you the Digsite Pendant you need to teleport to "Dr. Nabanik," who is, of course, Azzanadra, apparently a redhead--who knew?
     
    After talking with "Dr. Nabanik" and putting in a good word for him with the archaeologists, he gives you the rope you need to access the Zarosian temple (thank you) and sends you on a mission to fetch some artifacts from dangerous places.
     
    You need to get one of them from the Barrows. Surprise! We knew that the Barrows Brothers were originally cursed by a mahjarrat loyal to Zaros (probably Sliske) during the God Wars. Now we know why--they were guarding this thing while it charged up power. And apparently, the Strange Old Man is also a mahjarrat in disguise or something. Hmm. Well, we don't know who, but we know why.
     
    So you do a Barrows run as part of a quest (cool!) and then you have to go get the Frosterhorn, which is way up north in a freezing-cold place. Jeez, you'll probably need a random rope or something and have to go back to fetch it, right? Luckily, if you ask Azzanadra, he'll tell you exactly what you need: runes to cast multiple telegrabs, and an anti-dragon shield. You also need a hammer, but there's one available in the area. So you go to the deep Wilderness and visit the ancient fortress of Ghorrock, where you have to solve a puzzle where you melt ice with heat orbs. During the puzzle, by the way, you fight icefiends, which melt into waterfiends along with the ice in the puzzle--a stroke of brilliance, I think. Then you fight an ice demon and take the artifact from it.
     
    Finally, you go back and collect a delivery from--ZOMG--the assassin from Devious Minds! Turns out the artifact you inadvertently helped him steal from Entrana is one of the ones Azzanadra needs to power the communication portal. And the bowsword we've been hoping to obtain for ourselves? Well, he pretty much says, "Go to Stealing Creation and get a Sacred Clay weapon, n00b." Jerk.
     
    So finally, you get yourself a cutscene in which Zaros doesn't really return, but he makes his influence known on Runescape once more, basically saying, "THAT ****ING ZAMORAK IS ****ING DEAD MEAT." Then you get a new prayer book![/hide]
     
    I have to say I really enjoyed this quest. It has pretty much everything I want in a quest. Let's go down the list:
     

    Story: A good quest needs to build on the existing storyline in some way. TaS does that. Although the ending is a cliffhanger, this is probably the most significant historical event in modern-day Runescape. Wait, did I say "probably"? I meant "definitely." We're on the verge of another God Wars. It's RIGHT THERE! OH NOES! And I think we were the catalyst. Aww jeez!
    Gameplay: A quest needs to be fun to play, not a chore. This quest was challenging, but not because of frustration as in a quest like Underground Pass or Rat Catchers. It gives you enough clues that you don't need to backtrack all the way to the beginning because you forgot your law runes, which is not fun, but it still leaves a lot of sleuthing up to you. Good gameplay emphasizes puzzles and avoids "Do my grocery shopping please" (yeah, I'm looking at you, dwarf from MEP2).
    Rewards: Without decent rewards, only the storyline freaks (like me) will care about the quest at all. Lo and behold, the Ancient Curses! The long-awaited high-level prayer update!
     
    Speaking of rewards, let's talk Curses.
     
    Ancient Curses are the prayer skill's equivalent of Ancient Magicks: higher-level, higher-powered, and all about killing things. For the most part, they're better than the normal prayers. Although Piety is stronger than the Leech curses on most slayer tasks and such, draining the enemy's stats is great in PvP and amazing against bosses. Turmoil is pretty damn sweet, Wrath is far better than Retribution for settings like Soul Wars, and when you're fighting a boss as a team it's definitely more effective to drain its stats than to boost your own. The Deflection curses drain at the same rate as ordinary Protection prayers and have the same effect, only better: they prevent more damage against players, and they can occasionally reflect back to your opponent 10% of what would have been hit on you.
     
    In short, they're strong enough to provide a substantial incentive to train prayer to a very high level. Well, that was the goal, so...check. And the price of dragon bones evidently has level 95 prayer, because it just activated Turmoil.
     
    Economic repercussions
     
    Dragon bones are rising. Fast.
     

     
    What's interesting is that we knew this was going to happen. Jagex announced a while back in their Q&A that new high-level prayers were on the way, and dragon bone prices spiked up to around 3.8k each in anticipation. I myself bought up a few thousand of them and trained my prayer to the high 70s. The price had already shifted partway to accommodate the new curses before they had even been released. Dragon bones are now 5.2k each and rising.
     
    I predict that dragon bones will continue to rise for no longer than a week before crashing. When they do crash, they'll overcrash, as is normal for the Grand Exchange, so the crash will be followed by another spike, smaller this time. (If you think you can predict where the market will bottom out, you could potentially earn some great profit riding the second wave, again a normal phenomenon.) After that spike, there will be a smaller crash and dragon bones should stabilize comfortably.
     
    I'm not sure what price they'll end up. My guess is somewhere in the 4-5k range, but I could be wrong. I am certain, however, that they will not go back to 2k each unless something radically changes on the supply side.
     
    How can you profit from this? Obviously, kill green dragons. They're a huge moneymaker right now. Of course, everyone else will have thought of that too, so they'll be really crowded. If you want to dodge the crowds, consider visiting the lesser-populated of the green dragon spots: south of the Lava Maze, best-accessed via canoe; and west of the Dark Warriors' Fortress, best accessed with Ancient Teleports I suppose.
     
    That's not the only way to take advantage of the prayer boom, of course. For one, you can kill other dragons--again, obvious and everyone else will have thought of it. You can also kill baby dragons. Babydragon bones are approaching prices that have historically belonged to the bones of their mothers. Baby blue dragons could prove a decent moneymaker, especially for players with 70+ agility for the Taverley Dungeon shortcut.
     
    Big bones are rising as well, making it a good economy for killing giants and such. Moss Giants could be worthwhile for mid-level players--they're not bad for xp, and they drop herbs and herb seeds that have benefited greatly from the rise in price due to the herblore update. I'd recommend them over hill giants. Good places to fight them are the Chaos Tunnels and west of the Fishing Guild, both reasonably close to a bank.
     
    Bottom Line
     
    I really enjoyed doing this quest. It was fun to do, it had a lot of story, and the rewards are nice. All in all, a good update.
     
     
     

     
    Some bits & pieces to track this week too, although not many. Here's your list.
     
    [hide=Bits and Pieces this week]
    Items sold in the shops in the Warriors' Guild have had their GE price caps adjusted. This means plain pizza is buyable again! Woot! :thumbup:
    There is now a fairy ring in the Ancient Cavern, code BJQ. You have to plant it yourself with some mushrooms and a spade, but once you do, you can access the Ancient Cavern through it. (It comes out near the western waterfiends.) A side effect of this is that you can now bring full beasts of burden to mithril dragons, which was previously impossible.
    Cannons now have a visual cue that indicates when they're close to degrading.
    Fist of Guthix rewards cost less to recharge.
    The interface for POH bookcases has been tweaked for better usability. [/hide]
  9. Troacctid
    Within the Light: Elf-employed


     
     
    This week's update saw the long-awaited continuation of the Plague City storyline, the oldest, most complicated, and arguably most frustrating quest line in all of Runescape. So how does Within the Light compare? Does it do the story justice? Does it learn from the mistakes of previous installments?
     
    I won't let slip major plot details from the new quest without hide tags, so no need to worry about spoilers if you're a storyline buff like me. I'll put the rewards in hide tags as well. But you're at my mercy with minor details and stuff, so if you want to go 100% spoiler-free, do the quest and come back later. I'll wait.
     
    [hide=First spoiler]There's more traps and more puzzles![/hide]
     
    Previous quests
     
    Okay. Now, before I talk about Within the Light, I want to talk about the rest of the Plague City series. This quest line has a history of frustrating, luck-based obstacles--poor quest design--and lists of random objects to fetch and take to some faraway corner of the map--more poor quest design.
     
    In fact, Underground Pass, Regicide, and Mourning's End Part 1 & 2 are the worst offenders out of all quests. Forgot your rope? Whoops, guess you have to spend five minutes running to the bank and back. Run out of food? Ha, tough luck, pal, guess you gotta do the whole Underground Pass over again. MEP1 and Regicide have that awful coal tar bit, and there's the sheep-painting: "Hey kid, go out to the opposite corner of the planet and get some inflated toads to fill with paint. Oh, and stop by the other corner of the planet while you're at it so that you can pick up some paint. See ya later." And all these quests involve stupid, stupid traps all over the place.
     
    However, MEP2 is infamous for its massive light puzzle, a complex array of mirrors and colors and crystals that must be arranged in a certain way to unlock a door at the end. I consider the light puzzle idea to be the high point of the series. In addition, although the traps themselves were unnecessarily frustrating, they did a good job of creating an atmosphere of danger and mystery that suited the trailblazing explorer feel.
     
    What I'm looking for in a new elf quest is to replicate the feeling of traversing a trap-infested area with less blind luck and more clever detection, to provide more puzzles like the one in the Temple of Light, and to advance the storyline, preferably by getting us into Prifddinas to investigate more closely.
     
    All right. Within the Light.
     
    Requirements
     
    The requirements seem like a good place to start. They're very high, higher than any other quest has asked in those skills. This is indicative of a trend. As Jagex releases new quests towards the end of the long storylines, the requirements get pretty damn high. And we're not at the end yet.
     
    The message for quest capers like myself should be clear: if you want to keep your cape, don't rest on your laurels--train your low skills in advance! If any of your skills are at the minimum required level to complete every quest, expect to have to train them up when new quests are released.
     
    The trend here is a result of the quest team's focus on finishing off existing storylines rather than starting new ones. I imagine they feel obligated to increase the skill requirements as the story moves on. Personally, I don't agree with that sentiment, and I think it's misplaced in this quest especially, where right from the beginning Arianwyn tells you that the problem is not as serious as it was in the previous quest. Why do you need to be higher-level, then? It seems as though you just need to have already infiltrated the mourners and explored the temple to be qualified.
     
    I can't complain about the requirements, however, because I already had them. So I'll move on.
     
    Gameplay
     
    One of the first things I look for in evaluating a quest is how far out of your way you need to go to get all the items you need when you need them. Within the Light scores far better in this area than previous quests. Almost every required item is available as you need it. You need a knife and a hatchet for part of the quest--loot them from a nearby corpse. You need a death talisman--Arianwyn has a spare for you. You need combat gear to deal with shadows attacking you--well, no you don't, because Arianwyn brought his crystal bow, and he'll kill them all in one hit. Everyone hates leaving the action because they forgot their tinderbox, and this quest wisely avoids that dilemma. The only exception is the mourner gear, which you can pick up while you're arranging the distraction and charging the teleport crystal. Thumbs-up here.
     
    Then we have a section with a time limit, where you need to charge yourself with energy in one place and run to another place to discharge the energy and activate a spell. This is something I don't think has been done in a quest before, and I like it. It's interesting. You try it the first time and realize that the energy wears off, so you need to try again. The key thing here is that unlike with Regicide or Underground Pass, you're failing or succeeding not because of blind luck but because of your own ability to navigate the Temple of Light. That's good.
     
    Then there's a new light puzzle. There's an array of crystal trees that reflect light in certain directions and several light emitters and receivers of different colors, and the goal is to use the crystals to reflect the proper color of light onto the correct receiver, combining colors as necessary. I think it's a brilliant puzzle, even better than the first light puzzle. The focus in Mourning's End Part 2's puzzle was more on dealing with the mazelike temple full of aggressive monsters; Within the Light has distilled the puzzle down to its essence, which is manipulating light beams to shine certain colors at specific targets. It helps a lot that the mirrors are much closer together, which is a big improvement. The puzzle is challenging without being frustrating. I found it to be just the right difficulty to make me think without forcing me to consult a guide. My only complaint is that it was too difficult to tell by looking which direction the crystals were facing unless the camera was placed at a very low, uncomfortable angle.
     
    One more thing about the light puzzle: it's randomised, which means you can't just peek at the solution in a quest guide. You have to actually figure it out! :twisted:
     
    ...Well, or use the official Questhelp, I suppose. Still. :twisted:
     
    Finally, we had a section with a maze of traps. However, unlike the trap-filled Underground Pass or Isafdar Forest, this is condensed into a small chamber of spiked platforms. The spikes move up and down and pop up in different places in such a way that, although you take 10 damage if they hit you, success or failure is based solely on timing. You traverse the platforms to reach the other side of the room, dashing across the spikes when they retract, and fire a ballista at a moving target to open another passageway in the previous room. Then you need to run back around the same platforms again to get back.
     
    I was very happy with this quest's design. The NPCs give you enough information for you to be able to reasonably complete it without resorting to a guide. The puzzle is great and I never found myself dissatisfied with the quest. :thumbup:
     
    Rewards and story
     
    The rewards for this quest were boring. 95k experience spread over four skills. Relative to the levels needed for the quest, that's not much, and not nearly as impressive as the Death Altar or even the Dragon Halberd. Could have been worse, but still a miss for me.
     
    However, usually if the story is good enough, I'm willing to forgive mediocre rewards. In this case, well, we learned a little more, but we still don't have any closure. We didn't get into Prifddinas, although we got closer. We did learn why we can't get into Prifddinas.
    [hide=Why we can't get into Prifddinas]The whole city was reverted back into the crystal seeds from which it originally grew.[/hide]
    But aside from that, not much happened.
     
    So what we have is a quest that's well-designed and fun, but with very few incentives to actually do it. Oops.
     
    On the other hand, with its restrictive prerequisites including one of the hardest quests in the game and some of the highest level requirements of any quest, perhaps it would be a bit unfair to make the reward incredibly awesome but have so few players able to attain it. I guess that's what the designers were thinking, but honestly, I'd rather get a crystal halberd.
     
    Bottom line
     
    I think it's "crystal"-clear that what we have here is a de-"light"-ful adventure that manages to avoid the "pitfalls" of its predecessors. The rewards are kinda lame, but the fun makes up for it. I'm a sucker for quests, and I especially love quests that are fun, so I approve of this update! :thumbsup:
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