Runescape: Time for a change of pace!

Finally, a change of pace!  I've been chopping Ivy behind Varrock Castle for so long, I feel like King Roald has sentenced me to a lifetime of hard labor...

The work is never finished

But after a long long time, the elusive '99' came to visit me.  Got the Woodcutting skillcape.  The emote for it was nice, but nothing that really called out to me.  So far my favorite is the Prayer Skillcape emote.  That one looks pretty cool.  The fishing one was surprisingly nice.  But the Woodcutting emote was just... nice.  Still, that's one more 99 down.  I'm not even halfway done, so it'll be ages before I get the Max Skillcape.  I'm maybe a third of the way there.

Just as Woodcutting hit the 99 mark, Jagex released the Christmas 2011 content.  Which, coincidentally, was Tuesday, the same day as the penguins are updated.  So last night, Monique and I did the Christmas 2011 event, and also our weekly Penguin Hunt.  By the way, the hunt this week has 3 penguins in the wilderness, and pk'ers were definitely out there stalking for prey.  For some strange reason, all three were easy to find, and we wrapped up our last three penguins quickly.  It was my first view of the new Wilderness Graphics update.  Nice look to it all, but the main improvement I could see was the lava.  It has a very cool bubbling and boiling effect now.

On to the big deal of the day... Runescape's Christmas 2011 event.  Graphically, Runescape is getting better and better.  The overall landscape is being improved and updated constantly, new quests show off great improvements, and in-game the changes have been quietly making the game more fun to play.  A far cry from the problems most of us suffered during the bot-nuking thing.  (Which I approved of, but I'm glad they've fixed most of the problems.)

Back to the winter wonder... I really liked the look of all the characters and environment in  the update.  The colors, the snow, the npc's facial epxressions... excellent job, and kudos to Jagex.  The content itself?  A mixed bag, but overall enjoyable.  Wasn't too fond of the snow-on-the-floor puzzle.  It wasn't horrible, I just don't like that kind of puzzle.  Can't cater to everybody every time, and I don't expect them to.  The cooking scene, though?  That was laugh-out-loud funny.  The rest of it fell somewhere between those two, with a new pet and a fun wand as memorable rewards.  And, as someone told me last night, he likes the 'tube-sock' Christmas Snake better than my baby Jad.  I think he was just trying to annoy me, but still, he's right to the point that the Snake is nice.  Graphically, he's quite funny.  I would have called him a sock puppet without eyes.  But if you talk to him, he has quite a few conversational options, and lots of things to make you laugh.  I like the snake too.  :^)

The wand, it's fun for  a while.  You wield it, and click on someone else.  It's like casting a spell on them, only the wand throws random items at the other player.  Monique and I had a minor cupcake fight, some fun, some laughs, then put our new toys away.  By the way, Diango will hold your Wand for you if you choose to destroy it.  You can also put it in your Player owned house.  You can't destroy the snake, and I'm afraid if I dismiss him, I won't be able to get him back.  But Monique was able to put hers in the house toybox.  That's good, but he pitches a fit at you for abandoning him to the toybox.  Say's you're as bad as the wizards, and does not like to be put away.  So mine's in the bank, until I get up the nerve to 'toybox' him!

Now, I'm back to ordinary Runescape.  Haven't decided if I'm going straight for my next 99, or if I'm going to play around with other things, but for now, I'm in the Lava Flow mine.  Unofficial world is 71.  I don't really like all the immature conversations that go on around me, and for the most part, I just ignore what people say.  But it's far easier to follow the crowd when the flow blockage moves, which makes it worth staying in world 71.  Given time and boredom, I might go do some Gold mining in the Living Rock caverns as well.  But the Lava Flow mine is easy, doesn't require my complete attention, and I can catch up on my reading while I play.

At least the Gold Mining Armour helps.  With the full set, there's a bonus of 2 or 3 points with each successful hit.  Not very much, but I'm level 90 Mining right now.  2 or 3 points at a time from 90 to 99, that could add up to a lot of bonus points over time.  So, unless I get bored, you can likely see me and Baby Jad on world 71 mining at the Lava Flow.  Say hi if you do... but remember, I'm probably reading a book;  if I don't notice you, don't be upset, just drop a friendly 'Hi' in the comments here!