Welcome to F2P / Doing My Duty

I logged into F2P today and was greeted with this scene:

That set things into perspective. After muting around 20 advertisers, I sat in the Grand Exchange and just watched. Sadly, none of the players were speaking to each other, probably because their public chat was off to avoid the bots. Even worse, a new bot would log in every minute and begin advertising. F2P: It's a scary world.

I also found out today that I have members credit until August 15th for some reason. I didn't pay for it, it's just there.

800k Melee xp/hr?

Despite not having membership, I still like to keep informed on the happenings of Runescape (and I'm seriously considering becoming an avid F2P player, but I still haven't logged in for a while).

Anyway, today I found a video that shocked me. Looks like the new clan citadels had an unexpected consequence:

Personally, I'm very sure Jagex will address this "bug" and possibly rollback or ban its abusers. However, it did make for an entertaining video.

I'll sign on for the first time in a while to do the Crypitc Clue Fest III before it's removed. Must keep up with the special events. :)

Personal: I've been working hard on another website that I won't reveal yet. It's definitely a learning experience, but I'm still having a good time creating it.

Kastor's Epilogue

For now, I'm done.

Click here to read the article on my website.

Personal: I'm starting my career as a web programmer and I'm working on my first big project.

Baukunst wie ein CHEF!

Today's been a breakthrough in terms of my ability to train construction. I had been really peeved because I was having a lot of difficulty training construction quickly and efficiently, so I decided to try everything I could to speed it up. Here are the results:

Almost 785k experience per hour, and I maintained that for over 20 minutes. Yeah, I finally found my groove to 200m construction xp! Here are some tips for those interested in training construction quickly:

• Play in minimal detail with a fixed window to minimize computer lag
• Download the window's client to play. This further reduces computer lag.
• Play in a foreign language. I prefer German worlds because I can still understand most things. Because few people play on these worlds, it reduces server lag.
• Download a program like screenmarker to help you remember where to click.
• Enable MouseKeys and StickyKeys on your computer so pressing down on the numpad will jump you just enough to choose the "build" and "remove" options on furniture.

It can take a bit of prep and requires 100% concentration, but it's totally worth it for me. After I achieve 300k xp, I start to make errors, so I usually take a break here. Physical activity is probably best, but anything besides the concentrated clicking will help prepare you mentally for another session of concentration. Heck, just writing this blog is one of my breaks.

I bought 300k mahogany planks for most of the money in my bank, which won't be enough. I'll sell my purple partyhat soon to gain enough cash for 200m. I'm actually considering buying extra (by selling my third-age stuff) to stock up for bonus xp weekend. Obviously, it hasn't been announced yet, but I feel it's just around the corner and I'd like to make some money back by selling planks at around 200% of their price. :P

Personal: This week has probably been one of the best weeks this whole year for me. You know that feeling you get when you achieve something? It's a sort of warm sensation deep inside you, and it makes you want to be super efficient, clean, etc. I think it all started when I finally got around to making the "My History - 2008" video. I felt great going to bed, and decided to finish some stuff when I got up. Well, the next day I finished a website for a friend (which took a long time and a lot of tricks from my book!). That was a huge relief, since it took around 30-40 hours to build. I felt amazing. I then proceeded to clean out my room closets, which only added to that feeling of euphoria. I've also been super-active recently, too; I've gone swimming several times this week and I played tennis with a friend this afternoon, too. I've also had a huge boost in traffic to my website and blog, so if you're reading this, you make me feel amazing and I thank you!

It's been quite a change from the apathy I felt for a large part of the year. If you've been feeling like I was, I hope this inspires you to achieve whatever you want; it'll make you feel awesome. :)

So it begins...

I finally decided to spend all my money on mahogany planks and get 200m construction experience. The major event that convinced me to do this was the raise of rank 22 from 53m xp to 73m xp in the span of around a month--that scared me. I can afford this, but it will involve selling, most likely, my purple partyhat. I'd rather not sell my mask set or santa hat because those have been rising quite steadily, but under ideal conditions I'll sell my third-age armors and some other things without touching all my rares.

I'm hoping that Jagex will run a bonus XP weekend while I'm completing this goal so I can sell a large portion of my planks, then buy them back afterward with enough for all I need. It's a risky venture, but it won't ruin me if it doesn't happen.

Plus, to be honest, I'm looking forward to not being able to buy everything. A friend once told me that spending his entire cash pile was the best decision he'd ever made, because it made Runescape fun again. Maybe 200m con will do that for me.

In the mean time, here's something everyone should know:

How to make money off items you aren't using!

Do you own a wearable rare or high-level armor/weapon? If so, great! You can lend that item while you aren't using it to make some money. For example, my blue partyhat is almost always in demand, and I can lend it without problem for 200k / hr in world 2. Why? Because people are willing to pay it, even though it does nothing! Therefore, it's quite logical that people will also pay a lot for items that DO do something.

Take dragon claws for example. They're worth 17.1m and one of the most popular items to lend or borrow. I see people in world 2 all the time lending them for 30k / hr, and people pay it! Imagine, if you could lend it for 24 hours each day with a 720k return, you'd pay that thing off in less than a month. That's a lot of money for not a lot of work. 

However, and this part's very important, you've got to convince people that they're being smart by borrowing your item! Whenever someone borrows my blue partyhat, I always take a few seconds after the transaction's complete to tell them thanks, and that it looks great on them. It seems trivial, but it makes them more likely to borrow a partyhat in the future, which essentially means more money for you and everyone else lending partyhats.

Personal: I've attended around eight parties in the last two days, and I had a great time. I got a lot of sun, spent time with a lot of friends, and I'm ready for summer.

I'm building a website right now for one of my teachers, and it's almost done. She even paid $50, so I suppose this means I'm a professional website designer now.

New Website, New Goal, New New NEW!

I finally got around to making a new website. I decided to make it very simple and eventually ended with THIS.
I still need to transfer some stories and perhaps old blog posts, but for now this is what I'm going to use. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, considering it only took around 10-20 hours of work. :)

I've also decided to embark on a new, sub-goal! This goal is designed to answer the question: Is it possible to pay off a blue partyhat simply by lending it? Well, so far I've lent it for 7,000k the past three days. I bought it for ~3,000,000k, so I'm .2% there! Realistically, I designed this goal to keep me from being lazy and actually lending it every time I can so I have some money for my 200m construction goal, but I'm pretty psyched to see how far I can go with this! Here are a few pictures from my adventures so far:

I'm still trying to find that "perfect" amount per hour, but it'll be a fun adventure while it lasts. I'll keep an updated log of my progress on the blog and this website page.

Personal: I went to the library today to get out of the house while my sister got interviewed on Skype for a job. I really love my public library; it's gigantic, has free wifi, and is very conducive to studying (or, in this case, working!)

What I've been doing!

For the past three weeks, it's been very difficult to play Runescape for any amount of time. Luckily, I'm getting back into Runescape now, but I attribute my absence to two main reasons:

1. I began playing a wonderful game called League of Legends with my best friend. It's unlike any game I've ever played. I would best describe it as a combination between an MMORPG and an RTS. Basically, you control a "champion" and, along with teammates, try to conquer an opposing base while protecting your own. It's beautifully made, actively updated, and free to play (with some cosmetic content available for purchase). I highly recommend it.
2. I've been disillusioned with Jagex's recent updates. It's clear their business model places high priority on making money (which I completely understand--they are a business after all!) I suppose I simply miss the past when the homepage didn't have any ads at all, compared to today where the entire background is an ad in addition to the two prominent ads as well. Also, Jagex seems to be abandoning their previous method of letting word-of-mouth spread their popularity and now rely on Facebook and YouTube as well. They also compromised account security by allowing people to log in with their Facebook accounts. It's all very annoying when I think of how things used to be.

So I've begun slowly getting back into the game and it's been fun so far. I currently have 771m and I'm seriously considering selling a partyhat to purchase 200m construction xp before all 22 frontpage ranks become closed. This has been brooding in my mind for some time, but after a friend sold his blue partyhat to buy 200m herblore, it became my top considered option. In the mean time, I'm doing some fishing (finally trying rocktails with the 90 fishing I got months ago) and I've found it relaxing, but almost so relaxing that it puts me to sleep. No joke, I had to take a break from Runescape while fishing because I wanted to fall asleep.

I recently downloaded a version of editing software that's good for 30 days, so I may put together some videos before that trial ends. I guess making my history video for 2008 would be appropriate, given the sentiments I addressed above.

Personal: Tomorrow is officially my last day of school. I'm exempt from all my final exams, but I keep going anyway to ensure I have 13 years of perfect school attendance at graduation. It'll be nice to stop going to school though, because it's really a very inefficient waste of time--I have nothing to do so I find myself derping around on the library computers if I don't have thank-you letters to write or something.

I made $0.98 from my Google Adsense account in May! This really surprised me because I only have ads on this blog and one YouTube video. It's a great motivator to start a website to see if I can actually make a decent earning on ads alone. I'm thinking it'll be a great project to maintain during my time in college.