Bonjour, Hola, Cheers, and Hello! Welcome to my RuneScape Blog: Kirouto’s Corner! This will be my first time trying my hand at RuneScape blogging, and I am extremely interested in seeing just how far this takes me! Primarily, you’ll notice in future blog posts that this particular blog will be written as not only an update on my RuneScape tour (yes, I believe RuneScape is like the military…more on this later), but you will also find links, and/or quotes from other’s blogs that interest me (barring their permission, of course).
If there is one thing that I would tell my readers up front, it’s that I don’t like making things all about me. That still holds true for this blog. As this blog (hopefully) grows and develops into a more popular one, and adds a larger fan-base, then I will do everything to advertise and give shout-outs to other people’s blogs.
Now, on to the reason why this blog was created: RuneScape! I have been playing RuneScape (on and off) for about 2 years now. I discovered it when a friend of mine was playing it, and I asked him what he was doing. From there, well…I think you can figure out the rest. I tried it out, loved it, and continued to play it, throwing countless $5 bills at Jagex (figuratively) every month. As of last year I have two 99 skills: Woodcutting and Fletching. Yes, I am working on more, but I think that RuneScape sometimes gets to be too much about having perfect stats, and not what it should be about, having fun! This brings me to the first question of the week. Every week (that is how often I will always update this blog, there may be more in-between), I will ask you guys a few questions, and let you respond to them in the comments section. So, my first question of the week: Do you think that RuneScape is becoming too much of a “race” to perfect stats? Shouldn’t it be a more relaxing time, and shouldn’t you not be pressured to have every 99 in the game as quickly as possible? You tell me!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I am currently working on non-combat skills to get to 99 at the moment. Since I have (quite honestly) two out of about four or so of the easiest 99’s to get in the game, I decided that I would do something a bit harder, and more time consuming. At this moment in time, I am working on (get ready to rip out your hair): Smithing. Yes, the almighty smithing skill. The skill that fills each and every one of us with boredom, and frustrates us to no end. Smithing is, without a doubt, one of the most boring skills in the game. Argue if you will, but there is nothing about smithing that, to me, seems “fun”. The “fun” factor for me, will be at 99 when I have 7643520123756 Million gold in my bank account (random numbers ftw).
Which poses me to another question for you guys: What do you think about the Smithing skill? Should RuneScape find a way to make it more enjoyable for us all?
The only thing that’s good about the skill, in my opinion, is the ability to click a few times, and sit back and wait for it to be done (and trust me, all you non-smithers out there, it takes a while). At least Jagex was able to give us some respite by giving us a “Smith all” option. However, since I ranted about this skill for at least two paragraphs now, I am still going to make that my next 99. Currently, I have 60(?) Smithing (it has been a few days since I’ve logged into RuneScape for more than about ten minutes). I won’t bore you guys with a screenshot, or a post every time I get a level. I will, however, possibly bore you (if you don’t enjoy seeing screenshots of high levels that take forever to get), when I reach 70, 80, 85, 90, 95, and 99 Smithing. This may seem like a lot, but it really isn’t going to be all that often, considering the length of the skill.
Okay, enough with Smithing. I’m sure you’ll all hear enough about smithing in the posts to come. Onto a new thing: the castlewars update! If you guys haven’t had a chance to check out Mod Tim’s post on the RuneScape homepage about the new updates to the castlewars minigame, here is a brief portion of the article, which includes the updates:
All decorative armour sets (including the new fourth set) give you a set effect when worn during a Castle Wars match.
- Improvements to the catapults – teammates can deploy flares to mark targets, plus the catapult has a more useful interface.
- A new ballista siege weapon you can deploy in the arena at key tactical locations (bought from the reward shop).
- Halos of the gods – these fashionable pieces of headgear reduce the rate at which certain prayers drain your Prayer points (which prayers depend on which halo you wear).
- A new faithful shield – a particularly attractive shield with a nice Prayer bonus.
- New combat potion sets that can be bought with tickets and used within the arena.
- Castle Wars prestige capes – new capes for those who have captured the most flags or killed the most players in a match, or who’ve played a LOT of Castle Wars.
- Take-5 added to the equipment tables, to make it quicker to get going once a match begins.Castle Wars added to the website’s Hiscores section, tracking number of matches played.
- Castle Wars added to the website’s Hiscores section, tracking number of matches played
And there you have it, the updates as release by Mod Tim on May 27th, 2010. I personally haven’t had a chance to head on over to castlewars and try out the new minigame’s updates, but if you have, then feel free to comment and tell me if it’s worth the time. I never have been a fan of castlewars myself, unless I had a large team of close in-game friends, or a clan to play with, but maybe now it’ll be worth my time to go and play it.
Also, I’m stoked for the new re-opening of RuneScape Classic! Once again, Jagex is giving members the opportunity to sign up for RSC, effective from Tuesday June 1st, until Tuesday June 15th. I missed the last opportunity a long time ago to sign up for it, and I am not going to miss this one! Back when RSC was open to anyone (members) to play, I logged in a few times and never really took it in stride. But I’ve seen videos of it on YouTube in the past, and it looks like it will be a nice “getaway” from RuneScape 2 for a while.
Okay, this is the last piece of RuneScape news, I promise. The final topic of what’s new in RuneScape I’d like to touch on is the new skillcape emote updates. This is taken directly from the RuneScape website news post about the update: “This week, we have made some animation improvements to standard and skillcape emotes. All standard emotes have now been ‘tweened’ (a process that blends together existing frames of animation). This process results in much smoother animations without changing how they look. … adding particle effects to them (things like twinkling lights and fire), giving you even more reason to show off your skillcapes. To see these particle effects, you will need to set the ‘Particles’ option in the Custom Graphics Options menu to ‘Medium’ or ‘High’.”
Okay, heres my opinion on this update. As soon as I read this on the RuneScape homepage, I rushed to log into RuneScape and see what my newly updated Woodcutting emote would look like. So I set my particles on ‘High’, and clicked the emote button. What an anti-climactic moment in my life which wasted 2 minutes that I will never get back. To me, the update doesn’t really do too much, except for the fact that they changed around a few of the skillcape emotes, or at least the ones that really needed it. Oh well, I guess we can’t all be happy with every single update Jagex comes out with.
Well my fans, I believe I’ve kept you long enough. I hope you enjoyed my debut of Kirouto’s Corner, and I hope even more that you will come back and read more! I promise, not all of these posts will be rants and things of that nature. Look for some updates on my adventure in smithing in the future, and I think that anyone who comments on any of the questions I’ve given you this time should be invited to my 99 smithing party. Anyway, take care, Ciao, fellow RuneScapers.
Here are some screenshots of my character, and of my skills, just so you can get a look at what I go through on a daily basis:
This is what my character looks like usually.
In this photo: Verac’s Helm, Karil’s Platebody, Verac’s Skirt, Amulet of Glory, Woodcutting Cape (t), Abyssal Whip, Unholy Book.
Here are my skills as of May 31, 2010
RuneScape- Kirouto's Corner 