The Simple Pleasure Of Construction
Entry posted by Merch Gwyar
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Construction is my favourite skill. For as long as I've been a member, I've been pouring my wealth into it. I would set a construction goal, then work until I'd achieved it. Money in the bank was almost certainly money being saved for something in my house. It's only been relatively recently that I've kept back 'safety' money, ie something to fall back upon if the world ends or I need to buy a cup of tea. Nevertheless, beyond the base money, even now it's usually savings for my house.
But, perversely, the higher I've got in the skill, the less fun it's become. This is because it's not the hours spent building larders or oak dungeon doors that constitutes fun. It's the running around afterwards, building everything that you can possibly build now. It's the sitting for hours, with house planners, trying to fit rooms together, like jigsaw pieces, in the best way possible for you. It's the sheer strategic planning involved in looking at your inventory, knowing that you have a limited number of spaces in there, and you have to remember to save some room for making tea. (I've lost count of the number of times that I've made tea with only two spaces. You can do it. With one space, you're in trouble, as you have to put the tea into the teapot, but two spaces is just about possible. It's the adrenaline rush of knowing that, if you accidentally click, when the room isn't set up correctly, then you can't afford to re-do it; or if you've forgotten something, after you've taken down these shelves, you won't have the tea to make anything. (That's happened twice - love to Katarat and Teacuptime, respectively, who rushed halfway across Gielinor to deliver whichever material was missing.)
You tend to lose all of that at higher levels. Your house is already planned. (Usually around the time that you first have to buy marble and gold leaf. The 'how much?!!' is swiftly followed by the realisation that your days of trying out rooms, in different locations, to see where they look prettiest, are over. If a room has marble in it, it's staying put!) There used to be times when you'd pack enough planks to gain several levels in one session. This meant a lot of the fun sort of building, once they were fireworked into being. Then the levels get further apart. The pile of planks, that used to get you five levels, are now chipping away at one. You get to the other end and you might have one thing to put up. Ooh! Pretty new shield on the wall. Yay. *looks around* *sighs* And that's it.
Then, even worse, you hit that point when the materials are so expensive (it's a money sink skill after all :o), that you don't build anything at all. It's not worth it, when that bit of furniture will only be torn down later on. Thus it is that I installed a mahogany throne (with money loaned to me by Guildwars, which shows you how long ago that was); but I've watched the ability to build gilded, skeletonal and crystal thrones pass me by. My eye is set upon the demonic throne; and my bank would scowl pointedly at me, if I wasted, say, 14.6m gp on a crystal throne at level 95, when I'm going to want to spend 25m on a demonic throne at level 99.
But then came today. Happy day! :P For the first time in years, I've been able to train fun construction! :o
It all started with me looking at Runemonkey and realising that 92 construction was very, very close. I shoved a bid on, at the GE, for some oak planks, then had a meander around my house. 92 construction is significant. 92 is when you get those posh, marble spiral stairs (with some tea and a crystal saw), so wherever your skill/quest hall is, at the time, is where its staying. Mine has been around the back for a while, but that wasn't necessarily where it was staying. I needed the room allocation.
I remember the olden days, when I thought that I didn't need a decent dungeon. My gameplay isn't the most combat-orientated ever, and I'm not a PKing type of wench, so I'd just make the above ground part lovely instead. So I did. I had enough skill and quest halls to cover every different painting and map, that Sir Renitee produced. If it could be displayed, then I built a space for it to be displayed in. The future cost, in rooms, to my dungeon didn't factor. Back then, I couldn't build much down there. When you're younger, you can build what you like, duplicate what you like, and still climb into your 26 room allocation and with rooms to spare. Then you reach that level, 74, 75, your options run out, wave a little white flag, and without any warning at all, you're suddenly a dungeon builder.
Only a small part of it was peer pressure. My more bloodthirsty, psychopathic, PKing friends, looking at me with big, hound-dog eyes and quivering lips, "Please, Merchy, please let me have somewhere to maliciously and without mercy bludgeon to death innocent bystanders. Pleeeeeaaasssseeee." "'k." But a bigger part of it was that, after whole decades of levels out in the desert, you can suddenly plan rooms again! There's the strategic buzz of 'how can I get as much as possible out of these three rooms?' Designing the whole thing so that it looks more than it is. Then working it so that there's something for both the little ones and the rabid, red combat, spiky armour ones. It took freaking hours (of fun) to design that dungeon; and then Jagex went and released a load of new rooms, with no extra allocation to spend on them. :)
I needed more rooms and my eye was drawn to those extra skill and quest halls, up above. Unfortunately, at least two of them provided supporting walls for other rooms. Others provided access from one wing of the house to another. They didn't all have staircases in them. I sat there, with a paper and pencil, making endless crude drawings of my house as was, and as it could be. The margins of the page became filled with lists, in words and figures; some of them sporting scribbles, as more amendments were made. I would have to pull down five rooms in all. Some to be rebuilt elsewhere. Some to just get at another room underneath it. There were marble and gold leaf involved. This was going to be expensive. I would lose a stuffed big shark. I would gain one, single, solitary room. It was worth it.
I made one final list, then stopped with this no lifing and got out of the house. I went to Varrock first, to the GE, where my order was for: 59 teak planks; 17 mahogany planks; 12 oak planks; 18 steel bars; 1000 of each elemental rune, plus an extra 9500 fire runes; and 2 molten glass (I bought seaweed and made my own). Then it was onto the minecart to Keldagrim. I walked into the stonemason's shop and bought: 18 marble blocks; 3 gold leaves; and 1 magic stone. Off to Falador then, climbing the twisting staircase to find Sir Renitee: 1 portrait of King Arthur; 1 landscape of Isafdar; and one large map pl0x. Banking all, I raced into the Wilderness. In the vicinity of Jeninia's farm, I collected 12 bones and 12 skulls. That was in addition to some supplies that I already had in my bank. Plus, I needed money for room building and some dungeon bosses. By the time I was ready to pull half of my house down, I'd spent, or was preparing to spend, 8m gp!! Yes, that did leave me practically destitute. LOL
But before I could do anything, I needed a Stealing Creation hammer. I couldn't remember which world Fast SC is on, so went into a normal one. Before we entered, the PKers on the other team were doing their psyching us out thing. It was really working. I stood there like this: O.O wondering if I had time to switch teams. Then, seconds before we went in, I heard one of them call out, 'If you're Mexican, come in here!' Oooh! They're Mexican! I know what to do here! I noted his name and, when he came to kill me, I demonstrated my solidarity by screaming out Hidalgo's Grito. It did give him pause. But only long enough for him to laugh and ask me what the proverbial I was going on about. I explained. He informed me that he's Australian. To be fair, he did say, 'Gf', as I died. Having a clan of burly Australian mages freezing your backside, as soon as you step out of your base, isn't condusive to achieving high SC points. I only needed 20. I got 8.
Game two was much better! I might be crap at Pking, but I had a class 5 swarm (with a processing thingie next door) that they didn't know about for ages. I also have the ability to summon class 5 familiars and build class 5 barriers. I was ready for the great barrier repair, with my finger on the 'desposit stuff!' button, when they finally turned up. Moreover, they had attracted the attention of OUR PKers. I calmly waved my net around, dragging in the points in perfect safety, while the air above my head zinged with the crossfire of mages. When one of them finally got me, I had time activate deposit and to drop my net on the floor. Then I came back and pick-pocketed all his runes with my class 5 thieving. Skillers for the win!
Happy days!
I have to admit that my face was a little D:, when I saw my beautiful house in bits. I remember the effort and hard-scraped expense that went into building those rooms in the first place. Now there were blank bits stretching right down into the bedrock. One of the rooms up for relocating was the costume room, home to a huge collection of TT items. I took out the ranger boots and the royal attire. I don't know what I'd do if all of the rest went missing, but losing the ranger boots and crown would feel downright apocalytic. I whispered a prayer to Guthix and moved the room. It appeared in its new spot with all of my collection intact. Yes! With my eye firmly on the last of the scribbled blueprints, I set about rebuilding. Some rooms had to be positioned just so, else it wouldn't work. I concentrated, it all slid together just as my pad had said it would. (That shocked me too.) Then I had a house half filled with empty rooms. Some of them in the same place that exactly the same, fully furnished room had been. Several trips to the bank later, my house was looking a lot more homely.
All of that had only knocked 20k xp off the remainder to my level, so I still had to do some oak dungeon doors. Not many though. :)
I was off! Nearly knocking Syd over, in my rush to get to the bank. The marble, spiral staircase, offering escape from my dungeon (after that infamous guests-trapped-down-there party, that felt like a priority) were soon in. Then I was darting around the corner, where TWO new rooms were going in. One was fully furnished and decorated, with a boss in it. The other was partially so, without a boss in it. I stared at the empty space, where a boss should be roaring at me. It would take 7.5m to finish it off. I had 3m in the bank. I kept on staring at the empty space. I wondered what else I had in the bank.
If this was a film, then this would be the moment when a little bubble, with Simple's head in it, would have encircled me. She would have been saying, "Patience is a virtue, Merch. Why the rush? You have enough skills, at a high enough level, that you'll make this money in no time. Don't sell your supplies." It would followed by another bubble, with Egghebrecht saying, "Don't spend the 3m. Come and see me and I'll guide you through turning that 3m into 300 billion. Then you'll never have to have a dilemma like this again. You could easily turn that 3m into 7.5m before the end of next week."
However, this wasn't a film, so I didn't have any bubbles. What I did have was a Varrock portal, opening out right at the southern entrance to the GE. I hurtled across the tiles towards the counter, then stopped dead. There was a woman calling out, "Trading my green dragon mask for full Guthans and some junk." I shook my head. Full Guthans is good. Full Guthans means that you're a pwnage fighter; and it's what you should wear when the instructions call for 'best melee outfit'. I carried on to the counter and starting rummaging through my bank for things to sell. Then the woman said, "*sigh*" and "Trading my green dragon mask for full Karil's and some junk." :o I've got full Karil's! I got it in the sale, after the first bonus xp weekend. I've never used it. I wouldn't know what to use it for. Unless, maybe, as something to hold up as an example of how not to spell Karl. I grabbed my box set of Karil armour; plus that pile of mint cake that's probably stale by now; plus all of those poisoned addy arrows, that I got myself saddled with, the last time I was being too impatient.
Karil's, junk, I traded her. I was still 2m short. We both went, "Awwww", and I walked away. A little voice, in my head, was shrieking, "I can has green dragon, pl0x, pl0x, pl0x! Pretty in your TT chest! Pl0x!" But the more sensible side of me said no. "Pl0x!" "No! You've already ignored the bubbles of Simple and Egghebrecht, that weren't there. You've come here to find 7.5m, so why are you even considering spending 2m on a pretty?" "Pl0x!" "You can have the dragon mask, if you like; but if you do, you're not having a monster too." (I hope everyone else talks to themselves like this? Else I'm going to look really silly. >.>)
I was really impressed with my bank clearance. I even managed not to sell the Karil's, which apparently now retails for 2.5m more than I paid for it. I chucked in things like the 1k coconuts that were breeding in my bank; and the 200 prayer pots, that I'd decided not to even try to sell into the flooded post bonus xp weekend market (they went instantly today). I decided that no girl needs 56 spades nor 93 hammers. I was a little surprised to note that I had nearly 300 games necklaces. Most of them went in. In short, it wasn't long before 5m was sitting in my bank. I ran back home and bought my monster. I then returned to keep selling, until I had another 2.5m. I ran back and buried some landmines. I think my dungeon is now Militarius and Warlock proof. We'll see.
I wandered around my house. Bankrupt and exhausted, but wearing a big grin on my face. This is what Construction should be. This was why it's my favourite skill. And wow! Didn't I have fun today? Yes. Yes, I did. :)
Then I
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