Chrome Goggles, Pouches, Toolbelts And Bank Space
Jagex seemed to have a field day yesterday, adding things left, right and centre. The big theme of the day seemed to be extra bank space. While I was killing Vyrewatch, Elias Erebus was exploring all of the new goodies. After all of the gasps and urrrggghhhs, he came up with a final figure. If members utilised all of the spaces in the toolbar and pouch, as well as 30 extra spaces we got as a present, we would have around 69 free bank spaces. Nothing to sneeze at there! The only people in the game not desperate for bank space are those running the runecrafting route from ZMI to Moonclan.
I certainly loved the toolbelt. I experimentally put a tinderbox on it, then lit a log. I didn't have to have a tinderbox in my inventory at all. It just automatically set fire to that log from my toolbelt. Win! Brettm, a player who was watching the pyrotechnics, commented that it will be invaluable for accessing Brimhaven Dungeon. The bronze axe on the belt will cut through the vines. Just about everyone in Canting was rushing to fill their belts by the end of it. A few of us noted that we completed the 'Sheer Convenience Task', when we added our shears. Elias mysteriously gained 200k gp for buying a pair from the Lumbridge general store. We worked out that he must have passed a set number of tasks, because it definitely wasn't working for anyone else!
The only bizarre thing about the belt is the exclusion of the sextant. The watch and chart are both there, which will help greatly with doing treasure trails, so why not the sextant? Very strange. Unless it's the fact that you're technically supposed to use that (as opposed to using the Tip It Co-Ordinates Locator, as everyone really does), so it's necessary to have it in your inventory. The other two are really just pixels in your bag.
I'm finding the money pouch to be annoying. I can see its use for picking up money drops, while out and about slaughtering monsters. I can also see how useful it would be for random boat rides. No more rushing back to the bank, as you'll have your fare right there. What's doing my head in is the fact that all money goes into that pouch, adding another layer of clicks to every transaction. For example, I habitually buy my battlestaves in Varrock, then sell them in the GE. In the old days, I'd take the money from the bank, buy the staves, shove them into the GE, take my sales money and dump that into the bank. A very quick and simple daily routine. Until, that is, the money pouches arrived. Now I have to take the money from the bank, remove the money from my pouch, buy the staves, shove them into the GE, take my sales money, remove my money from my pouch, dump it into the bank. I've tried left-clicks, right-click and looked for any toggle. You can't stop this happening. It's really doing my head in.
However, nothing did my head in more than having to download Google Chrome, in order to gain the Chrome Goggles. This is for a limited time only. If you log onto Runescape in Google Chrome (which everyone in Jagex Towers does, boys and girls! We love it! Use Chrome! Do it!), then you get some fancy eyewear. These will be rares. You can't trade them. Only the people who do this right now will ever be able to get these goggles, in the entire history of everness. Ok! I get the hint. Jagex got some kind of big advertising deal with Google. They want us all to try out the merchandise. All Jagex has to do is design and code a few pixels and presumably some large cheque will be in the post.
The principle of the thing alone is annoying. It is advertising. I've paid my membership fee not to have that, but this is a backdoor route into using me as a targetted audience for advertising Google Chrome. Fair enough, I don't have to do it. I could refuse to try Google's merchandise and Jagex won't have made a penny in advertisement fees off me. But I'm a Runescape junkie. I want my goggles. They're not only rares, but they're filling a spot in the toy box of my POV. So I downloaded Google Chrome, just as Jagex knew I likely would.
I probably wouldn't mind so much if this was in isolation, but it's becoming a bit of a habit. You can only get 'x' item, if you go to Runefest. You can only get such and such, if you buy a 6 month or 3 month membership card. I pay my membership by direct debit from my bank every month, so why can't I have those items? I'm not going to buy additional membership to superimpose over the top. Also, as Jethraw pointed out, the six months weren't up from that offer, before the 3 months card offer was launched. Were the completitionists supposed to double up on their membership there too?
Anyway, instead of buying membership in a different way, I just had to download Chrome. I did that and I was immediately told that I had to close Firefox. Chrome doesn't like another browser being open at the same time. Aggressive marketing there, Mr Cutts. So I closed Firefox and tried to log onto Runescape. I couldn't, because my Java wasn't installed. It's installed on Firefox, but not on Chrome. Ok. So I downloaded and installed Java for Chrome. I was finally in the same and my goggles were in my bank. I would have fetched them out immediately, but I was too busy staring in disbelief at how Runescape looks in Chrome.
Beyond all of that graphics wreckage, the game lagged like lagging was going out of fashion. It didn't help that I was in the GE, but it took an age to do anything! I've never been more glad to flee back to Firefox in my life. There, of course, everything worked perfectly. Why on Earth did Google and Jagex think that this would be a good introduction to using the brower?
As for the goggles that caused all of this hassle, here are two pictures. The first from Chrome and the second from Firefox:
It's now in my toy box, just two up from the 'hood that I'll never be able to get, as I wasn't in the country during Runefest 2011.
So yes - love the toolbelt, annoyed by the money pouch, loving the extra bankspace and both irritated and incredulous over the Google Chrome thing.
Meanwhile, for those of you busy making your Excel sheets, there's another section up: Part 3: Calculating XP to Next Level in your Runescape Excel Hiscores Tracker.
Merci beaucoup, Fred, for the banner!
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