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We can destroy or we can cherish...the choice is ours

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Proun

Is an extremely fun 'racing' game that looks fantastic and becomes rather crazy on the higher speeds.   http://www.proun-game.com/ - pay what you want, free or up    
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Sumoblitz - Variety

I've got all the other achievements for Sumoblitz on FunOrb (it's a fantastic game :D), but Variety doesn't want to unlock. :(   As far as I'm aware, the description for the achievement is: "Kill 5 different enemies in a row"     Am I missing something, or is that exactly what I'm doing in the video, though without the achievement unlocking? This was recorded after the post in the 'FunOrb Fixes' (7-8-685-36811, page 8) which says "Variety achievement has been fixed. " - unless there's something that I'm not understanding, it doesn't appear to have been fixed. I've also checked and haven't accidentally unlocked it without noticing.   Any ideas about what I'm failing to see here?
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Interesting Conversations On The Bonus Xp Weekend

Much less exciting than last time - I've used 3:30 of my timer and doubt I'll log in again to use any more of it.   Stats before:   Stats after:   Runemonkey progress:   Ranged, Constitution and Magic were the Circus. Annoyingly, I failed as much this trip as I had in the previous 4, so the xp is lower than it could have been. Summoning is an inventory of Fruit Bat pouches when somebody mentioned that there could be a bug which allowed you to get the full multiplier (it only gave 1.1x).   Herblore was a load of Extremes (~900 Attack, 4-600 Strength / Defence), plus ~2.5k Brews and 20k worth of assist xp (Farming took the other 10k). I ended up running out of herbs 18k xp short of 94, so headed to Misc to get herbs for the last bit, so can now make Overloads with a Greenman's Ale (m). Smithing was just a few Mithril Platebodies after I'd finished with Herblore.   There wasn't the problem with randoms as last time, only getting 2 over the 3:30 in-game. Instead, time at the Lumbridge bank chest was made more interesting by the conversations.   There was the 'wft???@@?' as the multiplier reset to 2.7x, the answer being repeated for the following 20 minutes as the questions kept being asked. There were lots of 'grats' flying around. There was somebody alching to get 70 Magic who complained that it made their hands sweaty, to which a conversation started about how others had the same problem and getting 99 Magic was a real pain because of it.   ...and I saw somebody run across the basement to the chest, so clearly had to make a comment.     Random conversations ftw! :)
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Runescape Notifier For Chrome - Updates

I've made a number of updates and improvements to the RuneScape Notifier for Chrome in the past week or so including speed improvements, news and notifications which can be seen in the comments.   Today's change brings another change, this time to the way in which the GE offers are displayed. Rather than being lines of text, it's been changed to be more visual and easier to pick things out at a glance. I'm not totally convinced about the colours myself (I've tried taking them from the in-game GE), so if anybody has any suggestions please say! <_<   The current UI - hovering over the GE status bars changes the displayed text   Notifications when it updates   Get the RuneScape Notifier for Chrome
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Telmomarques Getting 120 Dungeoneering

^Followed by all 1200 people running to the south-west and causing the most epic lag I've ever experienced^ -.-   (note how there are so many people that I can see nobody who isn't on the same square as me)   The below pic was taken ~10 minutes later once things had calmed down a bit, I'd picked up to 5spf (seconds per frame) and people started picking on the various JMods around (Mango, Hayley, Spider, Williams, Alena, Scorpion, Mat K).     Pic of the cape (via @yakhunta and @Steve20058)...  
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Runescape Notifier For Chrome - Initial Release

Yesterday Jagex announced a RuneScape Game Bar - a toolbar for IE, FF and Safari. Although there's the usual problem that it's a toolbar and toolbars always take up too much space for the functionality they provide, it does provide some interesting data relating to the GE and Activities. It also spawned a number of 'y no Chrome, u fail!!!' posts.   Well, toolbars are ick and us Chrome users have no desire to have an icky toolbar ruining our minimal UI. The Jagex devs realised this, so didn't give us the silly 1.7mb of bloat. :glasses:   They did, however, provide access to the data through the authorisation system and Chrome extensions have access to it, so I've spent the last day working out how to create Chrome extensions, the result being the...   RuneScape Notifier (for Chrome, not at all finished and contains known issues) >.<   The popup window (old pic, now also includes the latest RS news)   Notifications when things update   It's a Chrome extension that allows you access to the data that Jagex has provided for the other browsers. To get started, click 'Authorise' and follow the steps to allow your browser access to the data.   I've noticed that the data can be very slow to update (half an hour to say I killed Bork, 3 hours and waiting to tell me that Maple Logs have bought), however this is a problem at Jagex's end.   The extension fetches GE data every 5 minutes and will add a notification to the icon to say if any offers have completed. It will also fetch GE and activity data when you view the popup, meaning you may get blocked by Jagex for a few minutes if you open it up too regularly (causing things to look odd).   This initial version is designed to get the new data across and not a lot more, so there will be problems. If you do encounter anything odd, or think something could do with improving / adding, please leave a comment and I'll do my best to see what can be done about it. I think auto-updating is working, but I may be wrong.   Get it now (for Chrome, not at all finished and contains known issues)
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Treasure Trail Update

I've been doing a few Treasure Trails since the update to check how things are and whether the update achieved everything it should have done. I've killed Bork daily and had a single level 3 clue and the Skeletal Horror has dropped nilch, meaning I've not had a chance to try the elites, so this is my experience from a few level 3s and a level 2.   First off, I love how they send you off exploring into random locations. There have been a couple of clues where I've been wandering into the Wilderness or Kharazi Jungle (I can now find my way in without a guide :)) and been going to myself "this is actually pretty awesome". The landscapes in RS aren't at all epic, but a bit of imagination takes you part of the way there. :)   Next, some of the Uri (emote) clues are silly, requiring you to wear reasonably expensive items that you don't generally have knocking around your bank. Rune Platelegs, fine, but a Rune Warhammer? Have a couple of these clues in a trail and you've probably spent half your reward on things to take up bank space. I will mention that I like how the Gnome Robes, a required item, have the colours in their name, but other items such as a 'round red and black snelm', 'purple gloves' or 'green gnome boots' are hellish when considering abysmal name choices and undescriptive examines.   If there's one thing 'good' about Emote clues it's that the GE price limits mean many items are unbuyable and you have to find out how to make things yourself. (no that isn't good, and yes I do have a Splitbark Helm in my house!)   Reward-wise, I've had a few trails which have provided alch fodder, then one with gave an Addy Helm (g) and one with a Bandos Page plus Court Summons. Giving me 14 Meerkat scrolls and saying 'you get a TTrail item every time!!!!' is silly - they're not even alch fodder and are worthy only of the floor. I understand that the market shouldn't be flooded with nice things, but even Guthix Pages at 12k a pop were more exciting than a pile of Scrolls or arrows that I'll never look at.   Looking at the new rewards, I'm of the opinion that the new Rune God Armour should have been made F2P since otherwise it's fit for little other than storing in people's Costume Rooms. The masks look nice and the Blessed Dragonhide probably looks amazing (all the old sets did, so I'll keep this thought even though I've not seen any).   The big issue is that none of these are the big problem for me. If you do TTrails for the reward rather than as a distraction or diversion, you're silly, so the reliance on luck for rewards is a bit of a non-issue. The Uri clues are a pain in the backside, but learning how to make Snelms and other random items because the GE doesn't work as it should is kinda interesting. Begging for F2P things (as a P2Per) is also fairly pointless, so what's the big problem?   You can still get the same clue multiple times in a trail! :P   It really ruins a trail when you get the same clue multiple times in a and leaving this in is plain irritating. The ability to get the same Slayer task twice in a row was removed because people complained and I really can't see how this is any less annoying. :(   Treasure Trails are kinda fun, but getting the same clue multiple times in a trail can ruin it.
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Q&a Summary - Mods Ash And John A

Two Q&A sessions in a week? :)   This is a summary of the, longer, forum Q&A session with Mods Ash and John A which happened on the 23rd July on 13-14-820-61340061.   The questions are in roughly the same order that they were answered, with a few moved around. I've also tried to leave out answers that were already known or any details relating to specific plot points. Whisker Please, when answering these questions, don't just put 'that's not in our plans right now.' But instead, talk about why not and what you think about it.Ash: For what it's worth, there are gazillions of things we could be doing at any moment, and many of them would be extremely popular but just won't happen because we were doing something else instead. Sometimes it's about which one got into development before a better idea came along, sometimes a job would involve getting Game Engine and Graphics to do lots of work too, etc. So when I say we've no plans to do something, I'm not trying to fob you off; it's generally the most honest answer that I can give. A very important point to take into account when looking at any response that's been given about something that may or may not happen in the future.  Ash: Andrew feels - and I kinda agree - that we should finish the continent we've got before opening another one in the EastThe Eastern Lands aren't going to appear for at least another few years, so don't get your hopes up.  Wendy-sChili: I suggested in June about some adjustments with clan chat. Ash: We're very much aware that RuneScape's clan support is... lacking, to put it mildly. The Game Engine team is planning improvements, although I don't know exactly what. ...but it's a pretty high priority for Jagex. Some Clan Support is being worked on, although Ash doesn't know what it is.  ZarosDivine: you are making new looks for all armour. Are you making them optimal? (players can choose if they prefer new or old looks) Ash: They're extremely unlikely to be optional. Making a piece of kit appear differently to different players is rather hard, and causes more work for your computers trying to decide what to draw. The game engine doesn't even support it at the moment. So if some kit gets updated, unless it comes as two interchangeable items, I'm afraid you're going to have to get used to the new look. The GFX guys will try their hardest to make it awesome. It's nice to have an explanation about why we can't keep old armour styles, although in some cases it'd certainly be worth looking into the 'create two different items' option.  Veneratus: I'd just like to ask if we can expect any sort of sequel to While Guthix Sleeps, and if so, how far down the road could that be?" Ash: The plot wasn't concluded at the end of that quest, so it's definitely got to have a sequel. I don't know when that'll be, but I think Mod Tytn will be delighted to get his teeth into it. He likes writing epic quests, and I think he's rather good at them. Pretty much confirmation that Mod Tytn will be writing the sequel to WGS. What this means is that it'll be at least another 18 months before it appears. In the mean time, we'll have the next Myreque quest to play with, probably released in early 2011. :)  Cute Lure: What I'm going to be addressing is the holding position of Scimitars.Ash: Our combat systems pick your readyanim based on the type of weapon. It doesn't have any flexibility about checking "but if it's a scimitar, and the player has this option enabled, use a different readyanim instead". While I could write such a thing fairly easily, it's an extra pile of checks to run every time you switch weapon, plus other times, and that's really bad for efficiency.   The good news is that the graphics engine is being updated in a way that will - among other changes - probably help with that bug where the tip of the scimitar kept vanishing. So it might be possible for an artist to put the animation back, once the engine change has happened. Does anybody know what this is about? It sounds interesting, but I don't have a clue what the problem with scimitars is. ^_^  Hawkeye8880: Did you come up with the rewards for your various quests? Or was that another Developer? I really enjoy the new Teleport Tabs and that Disease free Farming Patch. We need more of these “convenience” rewards.Ash:Yes, they're all my ideas. Also the monkfish (although they were going to be haddock until Mod Mark asked for something more exciting). Aren't you pleased that Mark wanted something more interesting? The abbreviation of 'monks' is much better than anything that could be thought up for haddock! :)  Darkmagic76: Which quest do you feel really stressed you out the most when designing it? John A: Actually I think the quest that most stressed me out was The Blood Pact. It's a small, simple quest, but it's also got to function as both a quest and a combat tutorial, and it might be one of the first things a player sees after starting the game for the first time so I felt it really had to sell the game. An interesting point about creating content for players who are new to the game.  Darkmagic76: Do you feel Nomad’s difficulty was to premature for a boss fight? If not, explain why. Ash: More concerningly, it's very hard to do that kind of thing unless you have a computer that's responding REALLY well with a good connection. I prefer not to create content that's so prone to issues like that. We'll have to see if this opinion has been shared with other developers. It's certainly a good point to bring up when talking about this kind of gameplay.  John A: I'm fleshing out the Red Axe plans quite a bit in the next dwarf quest. Raising an army to attack Keldagrim is only a part of their plan. Actually, trolls are going to be involved in the next dwarf quest! Earlier today I wrote some chat where you can try to argue with a crowd of angry dwarves...you'll find out why when the quest comes out. The dwarf quest *might* come out near the end of this year, but it might not be until next year, it depends how things turn out. Right now I'm working on the core quest code, getting the skeleton in place, which I'll add the polish to later. The current plan (I don't know 100% this will happen) is for the troll rework to go out with the next dwarf quest. Because the next dwarf quest also involves trolls! Some small bits of information about the next Dwarf quest.  Feldrew: What does Wise Old Man have under his bed? Ash: It was originally meant to be a goblin. Actually, it was originally meant to be a normal goblin wandering around his bedroom, but the GFX guys thought it'd be funnier if it were under his bed. I'm aware that it looks nothing like a goblin. A goblin under the bed is certainly a better idea. :)  Vanille: Whats your greatest edition to runescape ? Ash: I think my best update is the ability to right-click on private messages you've received in order to reply to them. Not very exciting, but it's really useful to me. Mind you, I'm proud of monkfish and the Love Story quest too. It may only be a small thing, but it's updates like this which help make the game feel much more polished and less frustrating to play. Quests are great fun, but it's the small things that help make the game more enjoyable all round.  Ash: I think Mod Liono will be continuing the pirate storyline in the not-too-distant future. Once he's finished on Dungeoneering for the moment, anyway. This means that my comment relating to what Mark said in the Twitter Q&A was wrong since another developer has taken up the series. Mod Liono's only quest has been In Pyre Need, so we'll have to wait and see where he takes the pirate storyline.  DobbelB: Can you tell one of the projects you are working on right now?Ash: We're redesigning the player design screen that newbies see when they first create their accounts. The existing one is a bit plain, and Mod Massih R has designed something better. I'm helping him implement it. I guess that's not very exciting for you, but it's all I've got at the moment :) Rin_Tsuchi: Can u increase the clothing options? u never s any1 walking around the game with out any kinda armour. No1 is just walking in casual clothes.Ash: Coming soon. Although there's not a lot of point in wandering around in casual clothes. Small tweaks to the early parts of the game are a good thing. I also presume the two updates will be connected based on how changes have occurred in the past.  Mock Turtle: Will the death of important NPCs (e.g. in While Guthix Sleeps) be something we might encounter again in the future?Ash: I'd expect so. Quests needn't always be happy-happy stories. I'm quite keen on getting the player emotionally involved in the game. Mind you, the player would have to be familiar with the deceased character for that to be effective, so it can't be done lightly. The need to have a connection with a NPC when they die is important and something that didn't happen in Blood Runs Deep, making the deaths a bit 'meh'. Deaths of NPCs should be used very sparingly and only once their story has been developed enough for you to care about them.  Whisker: Are there any plans for group quest/group quest bosses? / Olevando: do you plan on adding more "group quests" like heros quest and shield of arrav? Ash: Quests often appeal to the more solitary players, and people who don't have time for clan-activities and I would hate to see us alienate them with a quest they couldn't do. John A: We're not planning this, no. I personally don't think the 'group quests' work very well. The game engine just isn't well suited to it. I'd rather write quests with companion NPCs. Personally, I think that this is a good thing. The style of questing in Runescape doesn't make the group quests play wonderfully and although I'm sure that newer ones would be better, it seems like a lot of hassle when you simply want to sit back and enjoy the story.  Something like FTP3 feels like a good compromise since most of the quest is open and allows you to work with others if wanted. It's only once you reach the final battle that you enter an instance and are alone to face the final battle.   Whisker: Will Jagex hire more employees and/or raise prices or add some other way of money making? Ash: Oddly enough, hiring more staff is a right pain because you've then got to train them, and supervise their first couple of projects, and that takes up the time of experienced developers such as Mod Maz. Jagex is certainly happy to look at other ways of making money without squeezing RuneScapers (War of Legends?) but strangely however fast we hire developers, more are needed. And we're doing quite a lot of stuff that isn't so interesting, such as technical overhauls and newbie updates, and those occupy developer time too. Actually, I think QA is in even more dire need of extra staff than we are. The issue of training taking up the time of experienced developers was alluded to in Mod Raven's dev blog, so this expands on the point. There's certainly a balance that needs to be made, although previous comments that have been given leave the impression that Graphics needs lots more people, QA quite a few and the content team another couple. It may slow development slightly today, but the gains down the line will hopefully make up for that and more.  Laurazal: How much of the Wise Old Man's personality and story did you have in mind when you introduced him? Ash: I must admit that most of it was not planned. He was originally going to be a retired, pious Saradominist who gave advice and mini-tasks. However, Paul Gower pointed out that his telescope was pointing at the bank - which just happens to be the way the window points - and that he looked like he was spying on the bank. So a few months later I did the bank robbery update.   The rest of his personality came from that, since he clearly isn't a good guy even though he looks a lot like one and talks like one. So while he may claim to be a Saradominist, he's clearly got his own interests at heart instead (and he possibly hasn't realised it). A bit about how when a NPC is introduced, there may not be a full backstory written about them and how content can appear from the smallest aspect of the environment.  Rin_Tsuchi: Quest Replay is a must! u can replay any quest u want but u wont get the rewards got it but to see how it change would be nice to see. John A: I personally would love to add a quest-replay feature to the game, and this is something I've pushed for within the team, but it's unlikely to ever happen. It would be quite a lot of work and there are lots of other things we think would be a better use of our time. Finish the Dwarf series, then move on to do this (unless somebody else gets there first). It would be a fantastic update and despite the problems that would have to be overcome, it would provide hundreds of hours of entertainment. With the current alternative being creating a new character and having to level up again, a quest replay feature would be a fantastic use of your time! :/  FangrideQC: Can you give us an information regarding the upcoming quest featuring th white knight hero?John A: Well...I'd like to say something, but I'm not sure how much I ought to say. I won't say anything about the requirements, but the current planned title is 'Tome Raider', and the quest involves breaking the white knight hero out of prison. A bit about a signature hero quest (I think).  Timewarlock3: don't you think its about time for gnomes to get their chat heads reworked? Ash: YES. And the Graphics team started already. I think they all got moved onto other projects though, such as Dungeoneering. Where some of the Graphics team has been directed.  IMDGreatest: will there be amonkey madness/rfd awowogei sequel coming out soon? Ash: Not soon, no, but the storyline needs continuing. So one day it'll have to be done. The slightly embarrassing truth is that the code for Monkey Madness is so blinkin' complicated that no-one dares go near it. That probably means that the monkey quest mentioned in the Twitter Q&A session isn't MM2.  98penguin1: Will it [Menaphos] ever be unlocked, in the distant or near future? (If so, please say which if possible) John A: I hope it'll be unlocked someday, but I don't think it's in the near future, sorry. Looking at the credits for various desert quests, the developers appear to have either left Jagex or moved to a different department. Of course, another developer may have taken over, but it doesn't sound like any more desert quests will be appearing soon.  Dinstruction: If the WOM gets nervous when I talk about Zaros or the Mahjarrat, how come he's going out with someone who uses Ancient Magicks and is wielding a staff with a Zaros symbol on it?Ash: He knows she doesn't take it seriously. (You can ask her about her religious tendencies if you like.) You, on the other hand, are rather more likely to get heavily involved with scary things like Zaros returning. Ahem. Is that a hint about MOTM5? :/  -   This is a fairly drastic summary, with a lot of things left out, so if you want to read the full Q&A, head over to 13-14-820-61340061 and enjoy lots more interesting information.   I'll end with a link to a song that provided inspiration for Zanik and is how John A imagines her voice to sound:
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Twitter Q&a Summary - Mod Mark - Dungeoneering 1.5

Today saw a Twitter Q&A session with Mod Mark. The main basis was supposed to be the Dungeoneering 1.5 update, but it naturally progressed slightly off-course and meandered onto other interesting subjects. As always, I've tried to keep the quoted sections to things that haven't been said before and / or are interesting. For a full transcript, see 16-17-381-61353070 where Moe Is 4210 has been awesome and posted one.   Q: mod mark we need some real bosses, is there anything in the pipeline? (sending this early as im traveling home as q&a starts:( )A: What do you mean, real bosses? My bosses are pretty darn tough! There are many more in the pipeline and the biggie on 60 :P [Mark] Q: when i say real bosses i mean ones out of daemonheim... bosses that drop naice st00fz A: (Mwahahahahahahahhaaaaa) Yes!!! [Mark] The biggie on 60 is likely to be the final boss in Daemonheim - Bilrach himself? It's going to be a fight that few will reach, so will probably be fairly interesting.  As for non-Daemonheim bosses, help me! :mad:   Q: Any word on Myreque V? Will we see any updates in Morytania this year? Thanks.A: I hope so, but its not looking likely. Myreque is something I really wanted to update yearly too [Mark] Previous Q&As have hinted that if it appeared it'd be late in the year, so this is confirmation that it may roll over into 2011.  Q: Mod Mark, I am a huge fan of RS quests and diaries. Would the acheivment diary cape trim the qp cape?A: Good question! The answer is no, there are no links planned between the QC and diary gear [Mark] I know a lot of people have talked about this, so it's nice that the question has finally been answered.  Q: will we see a return of bankable monkeys or something close?A: Bankable monkeys! You rule! I haven't forgotten about you my beloved bankable monkeys. One day!! [Mark]   Q: Any plans to get the smithing overhaul done this year? As an avid smither, I really want to know what you plan for it.A: Were concepting some cool smithing things right now, but I have no idea when it might be ready for release. [Mark] This is one of those things that's been talked about for a long time, so it's nice to hear that they're finally working on it. It sounds unlikely that it'll be a 2010 release, looking instead a bit of a way into 2011 for anything to relieve you of the annoying grind that is Smithing.  Q: Are there any plans too make a grouping system for God Wars, Corporal Beast or other extreme hard creatures ?A: Hi, good question. We do have plans for a universal grouping system to cover all of the RS group activities in the future [Mark] If implemented correctly, this will be one of the greatest updates to come to RS in a very long time. Based on that comment, it seems unlikely that it'll appear before the end of 2011. Lets hope that Jagex can do slightly better than Blizzard and get it right the first time. :mad:  Q: Do you plan on seperating Daemonhiem and Dungeoneering? or will all dungeoneering quests involve daemonhiem?A: Dungeoneering is "The knowledge of the magiks used to create Daemonheim". Those magiks exist elsewhere :) [Mark] I don't recall seeing this stated anywhere else and it's an interesting comment.  [name=pirate-quest][/name] Q: Is there a pirate quest in development? Been a while since we had one. If not, what about Elven/Monkeys? Thanks!A: (SPOILER ALERT) We are working on a quest that has monkeys in it! [Mark] Looking at the Jagex credits list, the developer of the Pirate Quests has switched teams to become a Senior Content Developer for Stellar Dawn, so it seems unlikely that we'll see another of them for a while.  The next elf quest will probably take a while to appear. Firstly, the whole area needs a giant graphical overhaul like Zanaris had to make it look all sparkly and such. Prifddinas is also that giant project which will be done 'when graphics has time'. As well as needing graphics, it needs a content developer and it seems that Chris L is currently distracted by Dungeoneering. It appears that he's not quite as crucial to the project as Mods Trick or Liono (I'm probably wrong), so may be able to creep off and work on other things, but it's still something to delay the next elf quest by a few months.   As for a quest with monkeys, I have no idea what it'll contain. There have been a few quests involving monkeys, so it really could be anything.   Q: A friend of mine is asking if there are any Dragonkin related quests planned.. Cheers!A: The Dragonkin are coming and their vengeance will be mighty... [Mark] Woooooooooo, epic quest!!!!!!!
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Is Runescape Gameplay Engaging?

I've been watching through the TotalHalibut Cataclysm videos and found them interesting. Yes, the commentary is fantastic, but the key point is that the gameplay itself is very watchable. I hadn't really picked up on this key point until watching the, rather dull, Dwarf starting zone video and the following came up in the commentary:   "I'm gonna speed up most if this and I'll let you see the little bits of storyline that are dumped in it otherwise there is nothing to watch. Use the Total Biscuit method of measuring whether or not a starting zone is any good. How much do I have to speed it up? Because if I have to speed it up a lot like this, indeed this segment right here, is a good 5 minutes or so.   If I have to speed it up that much then something is wrong with your starting zone. It is not engaging, it is repetitive and it's dull. Ideally what you'd want in a game like this is for every quest to be something that people would enjoy watching ie. it's got sufficient storyline, gimmicks or excitement to be watchable in video form. Now, of course, that's never gonna be the case, but it's something that you should aspire to."   Thinking about it, this quote is extremely true (replace 'starting zone' with 'game' to make it more generalised). Good gameplay is great to watch. It doesn't matter if you've never played a game before, good gameplay is exciting and makes you want to join in.   Looking at it from this angle, Runescape is horrendously dull. There are few who would sit through a 20 minute video of somebody doing a typical skilling activity, so it indicates that the core gameplay itself isn't as interesting as it should be. Quests and bosses, fine, they're a bit more interesting to watch, but the typical player doesn't spend the majority of their time doing these activities.   Set up a screen recorder. Log into Runescape, start doing something and record the game window until you log out. Come back the next day and watch through what you recorded. When you become bored, that's when you started grinding. Was it fun?
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Epic Runescape Videos

I've blogged about a couple of WoW videos that fall directly into the 'epic' category since they have a feel about them that makes you go 'omg, awesome!' at first sight. Since then, I've been looking for any Runescape videos that are truly epic and haven't come up trumps.   Does anybody know of any truly epic RS videos, bearing in mind the following... In general, rap or metal makes for a terrible soundtrack.
Boss fights where people are standing still the whole battle are boring.
Crashing other's events is not epic. It's idiocy.
General Graardor wants to be awesome!   -   In other news, the new Jagex careers page has tabs that work like tabs! :) ...could use of location.hash so that the back button works and it's easier to link to specific sections be the next innovation?
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Stellar Dawn Forums

Jagex goes along, creates a fantastic looking website for Stellar Dawn which both looks amazing and feels good to use. All over the place, the 'title' tag is used where 'alt' should be, but other than that it's a very nice design and feels fantastic. You then click to view the forums.   Who in their right mind decided to use the same forum design as is used for the War of Legends forums? It's hideously bland, is horrible to use and doesn't in the slightest bit fit in with the hawt design that's been created for the rest of the site.   Of course, simply leaving it alone isn't what I do, so I've gone off and made a blue skin for the Stellar Dawn and War of Legends forums (they're currently identical). It's designed to have a similar look to the forum section of the Runescape Website - Blue skin, so if you like that, you'll hopefully like this too! :(     Get it now: Stellar Dawn Forums - Blue
War of Legends Forums - Blue
(they're currently identical in terms of looks, but are separate encase they become different in the future)
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2100 Total

It's been 18 months since 2000, but 2100 has finally arrived.     Totally anticlimactic and just another level in the grand scheme of things, but milestones are always nice to reach, plus I can now do barehanded butterfly catching with 80 Hunter. :lol:     I've dropped huge numbers of ranks in pretty much everything since 2k - the only one that's remained even slightly constant is Duel Tournament where I've lost 2k ranks. It's clearly not the most popular activity in RS. :lol:
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Love Story - The Quest

I did the quest today and it was certainly good fun. :D   The start bit at the barn was simply genius. A very simple puzzle, followed by a request to do a pointless task which you're ignored for doing. This whole section is taking the mickey out of other RS quests and is fantastic.   Heading to Draynor and you're shown a cut-scene of Dionysius and Zenevivia in the past. The emoting, dancing and everything else about this is wonderful. The camera movement in all of the cut-scenes is very good, though later on there's one transition before you go "ohi, I'm watching" after the fight that isn't quite as smooth as it could be (your character magically turns while the camera fades out and in for no clear reason).   Anyway, off to Rimmington and there's a nice friendly comment to the guards as the WoM passes through to Port Sarim. After a chat at the POH portal, he moves across to a building on the other side of the well at running speed, but with the walking animation, while you pop into the General Store to get a Chisel. Connecting the tablet was a bit of fun and then off to his POH.   I hadn't looked at the required items, so had to request a tele to the GE to buy the items that were needed (free teles are nice, as are 100 House Tele Tablets). Trying to use a tablet to get back to the house, it turns out that the WoM had decided to leave rather than stick around, so there was another run to Rimmington.   Back inside and it was clear enough how to make the Dummy. Then it had to be put into the dungeon... "WARNING, DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE TO FLICKERING". OK, *checks graphics options*... Flickering Effects: Off. *tries to send the dummy in again*... *the same unhelpful message appears again*. If you're telling me that there's bad flickering, at least tell me how to disable it!. :D Since it wasn't clear what needed changing, I sent the dummy in and the sluggish camera movement combined with the swirly glow made it a highly unpleasant few minutes.   That sorted, there were a few monsters to kill. I happened to have an Anti-Dragon Shield with me, so that was fine and we reached the other end without problems before being attacked by a crazy mage in a Throne Room. Being unprepared, I teled out to get some ranged equipment (combat triangle) and switch to curses (first time they've been used). Back in and all was going fine, with Zenevivia down to ~1/3 health, but I realised it hadn't moved for a while. Looking closely, I realised that she had Protect from Range enabled and, being distracted by the fire, I'd totally missed this, so unequipped my crossbow and tried to kick her, only to be knocked back when getting close.   I teled out and bought a DHally from the GE before heading back in. This time, I developed an interesting dance which meant that I could avoid pretty much all damage from the fire, while getting in enough hits to bring her health down. It took a while, but was certainly enjoyable and put to use all the time I've spent walking around in a square while waiting for minigames to start. If I had one complaint about the fight it's that the WoM's arm kept getting in the way when I was clicking to move next to him. :D   Back to Draynor and there's a bit of a chat before watching an interesting cut-scene, involving a Thingummywut, before the quest finishes.     The first section is fantastic, taking the mickey out of other quests in RS. The way you're given a stack of House Tablets and the options to tele to the GE or Falador are useful additions to keep it flowing. The boss fight is very fun with a need to move in odd ways if you're to avoid the damage from the fire. The cut-scenes are amusing and well choreographed.   As for problems, the jerky camera movement and blue(purple?) swirl when directing the Dummy meant I couldn't look at the screen for more than a couple of seconds at a time without problems and was a highly unpleasant few minutes. Even if I'd worked out how to get rid of the swirl, the camera movement wasn't smooth, so it still would have been a problem. The WoM's arm during the battle was also mildly frustrating as it kept getting in the way for that split second when clicking to move.   I have to say that I didn't play through with music enabled since I'd just seen that there was another Avantasia album on Spotify and was too busy listening to that to remember to enable RS music. :D Playing the tracks afterwards, it has to be mentioned that Love Bites is a very listenable track. :D (the other two are too 'generic RS music' for my liking)   Overall, a very fun quest, but the movement of the Dummy is abysmal. :D
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Love Story

I've not done the quest yet (will probably do it on Wednesday), but have been reading through the posts Mod Ash has made on the forums (there are a lot! ) and came across this quote... Thanks for the review. It's often hard to judge how well something will go down, although I reckoned I was onto a sure thing with a highish-level WOM quest.   This is also the first quest where I've written most of the music myself, so I'm glad you like that. 15-16-717-61257643  If that's not a reason to have another go at playing through a quest with music enabled, I don't know what is. :(   As for why there was this sudden burst of posts... When you've designed something, produced it and released it, and players want to discuss it - and you're not rushed off your feet fixing bugs - it's natural to post on the forums to acknowledge the comments.   On the other hand, I rewrote the Tutorial last September, and I didn't bother posting much about that. No-one was very excited about it - in fact most existing players wouldn't have seen it, and even fewer would have understood why we bothered doing it.   Meanwhile I'm heading off now to get some food and maybe play my quest. 164-165-396-61258051
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Adventurer Log Bugs

Once again, there were problems with the Adventurer's Log today, spewing out statements that people had done things that they hadn't. Personally, I missed the actual event, but the wonders of RSS have told me that I did the following (actual status in brackets): 96, 97, 98, 99 Attack (82)
97, 98, 99 Strength (83)
81 Firemaking (99)
Completed FTP3 twice (complete)
Reached levels 72, 74, 76, 77, 78 Smithing, but missed the ones between (76)
Completed EW3 (complete)
85, 86 Fletching (88)
16m Defence XP (level 93)
18m Constitution XP (level 89)
Killed 3 boss monsters in Damonheim (killed two yesterday)
Killed 70 Tormented Demons across 13 game sessions (the only ones I've ever killed were during WGS)
73 Herblore (90)
Got a Godsword Shard 3 from Growler (never killed and don't know which room he's in)
Got a Godsword Shard 2 from Kree'arra (never killed or even been into the same room)
Killed 11 Kree'arras (never killed - see above)
78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83 Woodcutting (90)
Got an Ancient Effigy from a Tormented Demon (not killed anything that'd drop one since the update, let alone a TD)
<3 silly RSS spam :D
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Barbarian Assault

A rough video showing my technique as a Defender on wave 8 of Barbarian Assault, recorded on 21st January 2010 after the rewards were updated. It is by no means a perfect wave (a runner got past :D), but demonstrates a number of useful techniques.

The key point to note is that at the start of the wave, piles of all three types of bait are placed in a line from the trap to where the Runners appear. Towards the end of the wave you can be more specific in what bait you put down, but the most important part is to ensure that none escape!
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Castle Wars Timelapse

I did the recording for this around the same time as creating my Runescape Machinima Competition entry (9th February), although didn't get around to putting the audio and video together until a couple of days back. It's interesting watching people pass through the Castle Wars lobby and how there's such as constant stream of Ghraaks and Kyatts passing through.

In particular, I love the way the music and the visuals work together in the ~40 seconds from . I'd love to say it was naturally like that, but a couple of seconds of the track (Magic Dance) had to be cut off at the start for it to work perfectly. :closedeyes:
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Runescape Website Blue Forum Maintenance

The RuneScape Website - Blue skin has been updated to fix the problems caused by a forum update that occurred today. The 'showhide' boxes appear buggy at Jagex's end, so they look slightly odd, but the rest appears to be OK. If I've missed something, please say!   I've also taken the chance to update the background colour of adverts on news pages. There are also a couple of other updates relating to colours in JMod posts on the forums.   Get it now: http://userstyles.org/styles/16009 (screenshots)
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Dking On A Pvp World

There was much discussion and debate about which boss to visit. Should it be the Dagannoth Kings? Maybe Sara GWD? A decision took ages to make, so we found ourselves killing the Giant Mole, the most irritating and pointless boss there is. Because of this, we decided to do something more exciting - DKing on a PvP world!   Off we headed to Waterbirth with some cheapish, but still fairly effective, gear, before hopping to a PvP world. Inside the dungeon, the doors you hit with axes or something didn't break because it only hit a 7, but needed a 10. This caused a bit of confusion, but we eventually made it to the Dagannoth Kings and this is the result!     The video is at ~3x speed (based on video length compared with the 'created' and 'last modified' times of the raw file) and should not be taken as a guide to DKing - I'm rubbish. :)   The music consists of the in-game track 'Temple Desecrated' as well as the first portion of 'Chompy Hunt' (DKing is both fairly epic and totally mad :)).
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Chompy Hunting And A Golden Appearance

I've spent a bit of time Chompy Hunting over the past couple of days to get some new hats to go with various outfits and have loved it. :D   Of course, it's old-skool, so it isn't totally polished. The flashing arrows disappear when you kill another Chompy, but this makes it more fun making sure you miss none. Various toads, bones and birds will hide within the ground when they fall in certain positions, so can't be seen. The toads bounce and there's no invisible area around them that can be clicked on (like implings) which means they're a pain to catch, but this makes it feel more real since bouncing toads aren't the easiest things to grab hold of. :s   To be honest, I don't care about any of the above. They help make it fun. The long waits with nothing coming, then 7 Chompies arriving at once. They make it feel epic. The complete lack of hideous trees* to look at. That makes it beautiful. The fact that you only see about one other person an hour. That makes it feel wild and remote and means those that do pass find themselves pulled into a random conversation about anything.   Chompy Hunting is fun!   [/name]What was annoying me can be seen in the above screenshot just below my character. There's a square and a half where there's a z-bias problem and the water was constantly flickering. After a while (at ~22:15 on a Friday evening), I decided it really was a problem and sent in one of those Bug Report things that's clearly eaten by a machine.   Five minutes later, somebody appeared next to the pond and got the knee-jerk 'ohi' since nobody else had passed in a while. Right-clicking on them, it turned out to be one of those gold-crowned guys (Mod Cj) checking out that report I'd just sent. Fine, fine, there need to be people in 24/7 to jump on major bugs as they turn up, but he could have hopped onto a test world much easier than appearing in-game next to me. The extra effort to appear like that may seem fairly minor, but makes all that time spent staring at the 'report a bug' form feel like it's not been wasted. Now, if they'd just appear more often!   This is the second time I've had a JMod appear in-game following a bug report I've sent. The other was just after the Vinesweeper release when Mod Chris L (then in QA) appeared and hung around for 15 minutes before deciding that what I'd sent in was probably my mind playing tricks on me and heading off to be useful elsewhere.   Anyway, Mod Cj didn't stay for long (all that needed doing was spin the camera a couple of times) and left with a 'cya'. What was possibly more exciting happened about 90 seconds later when somebody called 'Glitch King' ran past.   I lolled. :lol:   I think the two points to take away from the above mishmash of mumble are: Chompy Hunting is fun! :D
Bug reports are read by a human once in a while. :s
(and I've now reached 2250 Chompy kills) I am now a Dragon Archer and can get four of the 5-feather hats from Rantz   -   [name=trees-in-runescape-are-hideous]* Trees in Runescape (with leaves - normal, oak, maple, yew, etc) look plain horrible and desperately need their looks updating. I know they're widespread and increasing the polygon count or whatever would have an effect on performance, but as they are they look totally out of place. Personally, I'd be willing to accept a 20% decrease in my frame rate for the trees to look acceptable. Just update the hideous blighters!
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Dragon Chain! ^_^

I've wanted one of these for soooooooooo long and finally gave in to the temptation yesterday by putting in an offer on the GE. Logging in today, it had bought. :D     It was then a case of finding an outfit that worked well with it since the Skillcapes I have (Firemaking / Farm) and the Red Nomad Cape don't look quite right. Thinking back to those early games of Castle Wars where I formed the dream, I realised that everybody was wearing a Legends' Cape with it (they were the best cape / body in-game at the time), so pulled that out of my bank.   The Whip didn't look quite right, so I headed off to BA, bought the painting options and coloured it white. The Holy Book was the right colour to go in the shield slot. Finally was the head. Unfortunately, there's a cyan Chompy Hat, but no white one so I'm left with the Greeneyellow one for the moment. I'm tempted to spend some time over the weekend Chompy Hunting to make the next couple of 5-feather hats available so the outfit can be even hawter. :D
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