Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Tiger trivia

So a new week is upon us and that means UPDATES! (If you haven't figured out by now, Jagex tends to run updates Monday mornings from England. So early AM locally.) The update I've been looking forward to is Big Cats Sanctuary Week 2!
During week one, answering 12 questions about jaguars could earn you up to 12 points and two xp lamps. This week, another 12 points and two lamps are up for grabs, but this time the topic is tigers!
It works out well, because the prizes you could get with points are cub pets (9pts each) and titles (2pts each). With two pets and three titles, 9+9+2+2+2= all 24 points from the last two weeks.
Anyhow, since I know you want to get your prizes too, here are the answers in order:

  1. thirty two hundred
  2. poaching
  3. live in prides
  4. meat
  5. Borneo
  6. all of the above
  7. 10-15 years
  8. doubling tiger numbers by 2022
  9. 13 countries
  10. wine
  11. quadruple in size
  12. India & Russia

Okay, didn't get to talk about membership again, since that's going to be a long post (possibly more than one) so I'm gonna have a bit of fun first. But I promise I will be sharing my thoughts about p2p soon!

Good hunting!
~ Tidwin ~

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Farewell to Tuska

One last farewell to Tuska, now that the event has wrapped up. In some ways, this adventure reminded me of the utterly fantastic fantasy of Discworld, with sci-fi elements throw on top for good measure. But after the initial setup, the story, much like an inert rock hurtling through space, moved along via momentum without going anywhere.
It certainly was lucky for Gielinor that some wizard was studying astromancy the whole time and could help us out of the proverbial pickle. But what does astromancy do other than get heroes into space? What is the story of the small anima worlds destroyed by Tuska that proved to be the vehicle of her literal downfall? Is there more to be explored in space? And even during the course of the fight, clues like the World Window near the nape of Tuska's neck were dropped but somehow I never figured out what they meant.
So yes, the adventure devolved into a repetitive marathon of hopping anima worlds and then hanging out on Tuska's back. By the time Vorago punched Tuska in the face, it lacked the satisfying & complementary sense of accomplishment and instead just felt like a merciful release after a tedious lecture.
One odd thing about the cutscenes at the end: watching them counts as visiting the top of the Wizards' Tower if you hadn't before now. Perched atop the magical building, you watch Tuska fly over Draynor and south into the waters near the wizards' retreat.
What's annoying is that Tuska comes down to the west of the Bandit Camp south of al Kharid in member territory. Unlike previous World Events that have altered the landscape in free areas, the aftermath of this event is open only to members. So having put it off for long enough, I think I'll address membership next time.

Good hunting!
~ Tidwin ~

Friday, July 24, 2015

Summer redux

Happy part-of-July-with-no-major-holiday!

Just wanted to touch base with everyone to let you know that all is well and summer continues to be fun. As a matter of fact, I learned that checking your Beach Stats with the Lifeguards lets you track your progress towards many of the rewards for this summer!


Filling your thermometer fifty times gives you the Beach Swimwear cosmetic override. Fifty defeats of Clawdia (the creature with 1.5mill HP in the center pool that shows up every :45 after the hour) gives you the multicolor Lifeguard title. And consuming ten ice creams to clear your thermometer gives you the title Chilled. Thank you, Jagex, for letting us know not to go crazy, you've hit the major milestones. There are a few other rewards to collect fairly easy, such as the Deck Chair rest emote, hitting five targets in a row at Coconut Shy for the Beachbum title, or digging up ten ducks for Quackers. Well worth the effort, IMHO.
Additionally, for the next two weeks (this week & next), Jagex is spotlighting the plight of tigers and panthers while raising funds for the WWF. You can get some cute pets and titles, as well as some free XP, for participating. (I still can't believe you can't name your tiger cub Hobbes!) Go to Burthorpe and find the Conservationist southeast from the teleport stone near the blue banner with the white tiger face. Join his quiz challenge every half hour to get all twelve questions correct:
  1. human hunters
  2. blind at birth
  3. black coat
  4. deforestation
  5. piercing the skull
  6. more than 80
  7. restricting tourism
  8. dawn & dusk
  9. over fifteen thousand
  10. Guyana
  11. near threatened
  12. Mayan
Honestly, the Summer Event is a welcome carefree diversion. Gielinor is safe from the machinations of Tuska or any other deity for the moment, so let's just enjoy sand between the toes and keep applying the sun tan lotion.

Good hunting!
~ Tidwin ~

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Summer fun

Many apologies for the lapse in reporting, but as you can clearly see, I've been enjoying the summer events on Runescape. To celebrate the end of the war behind Lumbridge Castle a year ago, Reyna commissioned members to bring her enough sand to cover the crater and turn it into an ersatz seashore. (Members were rewarded with Prize Boxes for bringing buckets of sand. I spoke with Reyna during the beach preparations and was told only members could help her prepare. I guess she felt sorry for me, though, because when the beach officially opened, Reyna gave me two Prize Boxes from which I got flea battleships. So I was Captain of a ship for a brief time, even winning a few naval sorties!)
However, while some people were preparing to relax, more than a few of us were dealing with a major potential buzzkill: Tuska. A giant space sow was hurtling towards Gielinor, threatening to destroy everything. Luckily the astromancer (a new type of wizard) had an idea that might save the planet. Because Tuska is traveling through space, remnants of previously obliterated worlds are caught in her gravitational wake. The anima energy still held in those erstwhile globes could be used to power a spear aligned to certain deities and plunged into weak points on Tuska's skull. Zamorak, Saradomin, Armadyl and the Godless all sent representatives to encourage their followers and collects charged anima. Hopefully, if we mortals could collect enough anima, we could both weaken Tuska and empower one of the divine emissaries and stop the threat to Gielinor. (If anything I mentioned here was phrased incorrectly, it's because I didn't major in Astromancy. Sorry.)
So the Astromancer sent the willing heroes off Tuska and onto the world fragments to collect energy once an hour. Completing different tasks like farming, woodcutting, agility and others lets you collect energy in your spear. You could gather up to 25% anima energy from each planetoid. If you fell behind on an earlier world, you could catch up on later ones. Getting the spear charged to 100% caused the energy meter to light up.
So eventually the Godless faction siphoned the most anima energy, so Vorago unleashed that energy in a series of blows that killed Tuska and caused her to crash onto Gielinor, south of the Wizards' Tower, without annihilating all life in Runescape. There were a few days overlap where Tuska was still in space and the beach party had started. I figured the whole thing could wrap up in a massive luau but I was mistaken.
Indeed, to celebrate one morning, Mod Sayln showed up for a Happy Hour at the beach party, even appearing as Vorago for our amusement. This Happy Hour special meant more experience and a greater chance for random drops. The experience for cooking and fishing has been incredible and worth the time spent. The drops are also cute. The favorite one I have so far is the snorkel mask. The bunting whip is a close second. Hopefully I can get one of the pet tokens as drops as well. Other people have gotten them randomly, so there's always a chance.
Getting all the token rewards can earn you the King/Queen of the Sandcastle title.  I'm happy because I finally got Lifeguard for beating Clawdia fifty times. I also have Beachbum for hitting five coconuts in a row at the summer games. A lot of other titles such as Bronzed or Chilled involve filling up your thermometer by skilling in the sum and eating ice cream to cool back off. Another easy prize to earn from this event is the deck chair.
In this case, I am now officially sitting in my own deck chair that could appear anywhere on Gielinor. This emote is easy to unlock. Scattered across the beach are deck chairs in three colors: red, blue & green. Sit ten times in each color chair and you unlock the emote. (To make it even easier, right in front of Reyna's stage are three chairs, one of each color.) Once unlocked, a red chair always appears when you sit, eliminating the chance for scams and player-run games of chance using this emote.

Good hunting!
~ Tidwin ~