Favorite CoX Memory Contest! Now until July 1st!

[Patti]

Do we have to do anything in particle to mark a post as an entry for the contest?

[starro]

5 hours ago, Patti said:

Do we have to do anything in particle to mark a post as an entry for the contest?

I believe you can just type a post as you just did and you are good to go OR go over to discord (see instructions on first page) and do that. 

[Patti]

It's just that missy's last post made it sound like everyone here was disqualified or not properly entered.

[Glacier Peak]

46 minutes ago, Patti said:

It's just that missy's last post made it sound like everyone here was disqualified or not properly entered.

It didn't give me that impression. The rules for the contest are in the OP first post. 

[HyperAi]

When I first bought this game I didn't know what a MMO was. I played mostly console games so when I got home and found out there was a subscription fee I almost returned it. But the game looked extremely promising so I subscribed and made my first character.

 

After running around smashing bad guys in Atlas with brawl I wanted to make a few costume changes. I asked around and found out I had to travel to Steel Canyon by tram and locate the Icon store. I was only around level 5 or so and I tried to make my way from the south tram all the way north to Icon with high level baddies all around. I found myself visiting the hospital over and over.

 

I was granted access to the jump pack with a game code and on what seemed like my 10th attempt to make it to Icon I was close to death and used the pack to escape high onto the rooftops. Upon reaching the top I was amazed to see someone was actually up there. A level 50 illusion storm controller. We chatted for awhile and he proceeded to show me all of his powers. As he summoned storm powers with various pets I was in awe. At that moment I knew I was hooked. I had never experienced a game like this in my life. The community was amazing and the gameplay was so addicting.

[Corevector]

A Great Memory

 

Just a few months after the game was released, I was playing my first hero, an illusion/kinetics controller. It was my first time playing a game online.  I had just hit level 5 and was struggling with some unruly Hellions in Atlas Park. I was on the verge of defeat when out of nowhere a hero arrived to save my skin.  Merchant Marine was his name and he took pity on my feeble condition and healed me and gave me several buffs since my healing power had missed. I survived the battle and thanked him greatly.  He was gracious and invited me to join his team as they ventured into the new zone called The Hollows.  Whoa, The Hollows? I had never ventured outside of Atlas Park. I hesitantly joined and ventured into the unknown realm. I entered the new zone and was promptly greeted by a horde of angry trolls. Ouch, again Merchant Marine and his pals saved my skin.  Soon we went on this crazy run across a devastated region full of big, bad dudes that I tried my hardest to avoid. Try as I might and after several trips back in the hospital in Atlas Park, I finally made it across the death trap where we were about to face this crazy villain named Frostfire. Boy was that intimidating but crazy fun!  We went on many future adventures with many different heroes. Crazy fun and some times that I will never forget.

[Crater Kate]

My favorite CoX memory isn't a specific moment. It's a character, and two people.

 

This story needs some preamble.

 

----

 

Now, I never played this game on Live. I never owned this game (and in fact would never have played at all if it weren't for Homecoming), but my best friend's dad growing up did. This can't have been far into the game's lifespan because I remember being young, but I remember CoV. So we would have been... 10? 11? Anyway for a 10 year old kid, learning about this game where you can make any super hero you want with any kind of powers you can think of, and then you get to participate in a world where other people are doing the same? It was the coolest, most ambitious thing I'd ever heard of in a game (incidentally I still kinda think so). For a 10 year old kid my mind was blown, and though I never played, I sure watched a ton. We spent basically a whole summer together where a good chunk of the day was just geeking out over this living world of superheroes we had at our fingertips. I've forgotten most of the characters we made together... there was an Electric Melee scrapper in a blue jumpsuit whose name I don't remember, there was also a ... I want to say War Mace? tanker... vague memories like that. I do remember the name of one character, a blaster named Finger of Death, after the classic D&D spell. My friend's dad was an absolute turbonerd and had every super complex board game/RPG pretty much ever printed, just shelves and shelves of the stuff. The name for Finger of Death came from him - I remember that being a running gag from some of the games we played where the dad would do everything in his power to get his hand on a Finger of Death spell, whether in RPGs or classic board games like Talisman. Point is, there was a lot of collaborative character building and imagination that summer.

 

...I really don't want to make this next part too dramatic, but that summer was so special to me because it was one of the last ones, or the actual last one, I got to spend with my friend. Just a summer or two later he lost his life in a completely sudden hiking accident. I gradually drifted out of contact with his family - our parents are still friends, but I'm pretty far removed at this point - but I can't imagine my friend's dad kept playing much after that. He passed away peacefully only a couple years ago.

 

----

 

So. Fast forward to me, this time last year, when I heard about this incredible, almost sacred, game from my childhood and learning it was back. I dived back in really heavily and have had a wonderful time in this game that's almost lived up to my memory in some areas and way exceeded it in others. (Seriously, if only the two of them could have seen what the game has grown into, they'd have been blown away.) As the immediate childish glee wore off, my thoughts eventually drifted back to my friend, without whom I'd never have learned about CoH and never shared that summer together. There has always been a part of him in my love for this game, and about seven months ago, I decided to do something to honor that. There were a dozen characters we had made on Live who ended their time on the servers with no one who remembered or played them, so I decided to fix that.

 

This is Finger of Death, Homecoming edition.

 

 

He's changed quite a lot I'm sure - I don't remember much besides his gloriously edgy black and red scheme, and I have many more pieces at my disposal now - but this is the spirit of my original time with City of Heroes. Finger of Death is Slot #1 on my roster, he's Level 2, and he's going to stay that way until I say goodbye to Homecoming. He's not mine to play anymore. He's a reminder of the two kids who spent that summer together letting their imaginations run wild, he's a reminder that no matter how deep I get into minmaxing characters, that I am in this game for its creative potential, and most importantly, it's a reminder of my friend and his dad.

 

As far as memorials go, it's unbearably small and ridiculously pithy.

 

But it's one that only I can give.

 

Thanks for reading. 🙂

[Tsuko]

Too many memories... so i will share the first one i remembered.

 

The day the Recluse Strike force was finally in game : we started 8, full of good (evils) intentions with no idea of what we will fight, just some other Longbow to "farm" and our all mighty Single origins level 53 we spent hours to farm.

 

Before i launched the SF, i didnt check my notoriety : I was always in the hardest notoriety cause we had a good team and nothing could beat our balance of Good offensive brutes with tons of corupters support.

 

5 hours later (after so many wipes), we finally arrive in Atlas Park, and ... OMFG, Statesman and his Freedom Phalanx.

 

"You pretend to be Villains ? now come and prove it"

 

I raid since 1998 from Everquest 1 in Temple of Veeshan to WoW (before Pandaria :x) and many many others MMORPG but i have to admit that it's the only time i thought :"it's not possible" 😄

 

4 hours laters, we finally did it after more wipes than the entire SF. (We had to sacrifices a corupter to Vengeance / fallout / mutation and let a (victim) brute mezz tank the pack under Demonic aura / ton of inspirations while another brute had to take agro on the real main target (Psy damage ones), take it out of the pack to let the 7 other people to kill it before the main (victim) brute die and we wipe...)

 

Since, i ALWAYS check my notoriety and set it to the lowest possible one when i first try something 😛

 

PS : Sorry for my rusty ol' English 🙂

[Tortoise]

I've always admired content creators. As an alum of the Virtue server, I was particularly proud of our server's creative community, which includes VirtueVerse and Rogue Magazine. These materials were particularly comforting to review during that lonely period from 2012-2019 when we had no access to the game.
 

When Homecoming launched, I teamed up with my longtime forums buddy @sillow to establish a trial and events community, first with the channel TBraids and later with the supergroup Veracity. We ran between four and six hours of trials every night. One night, bantering between runs, we're sharing which servers we came from. I have Virtue in common with the mind/psi dominator, Sibyl.
 

Sibyl (@Oracle) PMs me and asks if I have ever seen her magazine. I say, "No, I don't think so," so she PMs me the link to Rogue Magazine and reveals that she was Pinkrise on live. By this point, she had already started constructing our supergroup base, and contributed frequently as a mez team leader on Hamidon raids. It felt like a free first-class upgrade with a seat next to my favorite celebrity.

A couple of days later, we ran Keyes for the Avoids The Green Stuff badge. Sibyl allows herself to die before the Antimatter AOE hits her, ensuring all received the badge. When you play Homecoming, you walk among legends.

 

 

Sibyl PMs me the link to her infamous magazine

Sibyl showing off what can be accomplished with Homecoming's upgraded base editor

An unusual strategy

Edited June 30, 2020 by Tortoise

[Patti]

Is the word count rule still in effect?

[zvelf]

 

I played City of Heroes starting with Issue 4 in 2004 until it shut down in 2012 and only came back to the game this year. It's as great a game as ever. There are too many terrific memories to figure out which is the best, so I'll just pick a recent vivid one.

 

In April, I created a mastermind named Epic Climax, whose bio is being a former porn star whose pets were her co-stars who all had (imo) hilarious porn star names. I had just entered Atlas Park at level 1 for literally 1 minute when a level 50 read my bio and enjoyed it so much he sent me a tell and offered to power level me so I could have all my pets as soon as possible. I'm not really into power-leveling and prefer to level through actual game play. My only real exception to this are masterminds, who are just very weak early on. About an hour later, I was level 32 with my tier 1 pet and my highest primary power. I was very touched by this gesture. This speaks to the power of a good bio, to wonderful moments of serendipity in the game, and the benevolence of this great player base. I try to pay it forward by helping others similarly.

Edited July 1, 2020 by zvelf

[GM Miss]

Thank you to everyone who shared their amazing memories for us to read. I feel like I see some of my story and the stories of my friends in some of your histories as well. Thank you for being a part of this amazing community. 

For some of the questions above that I missed: All the rules that are 'active' in any contest I do will be notated in the OP - if they change for any reason I will update them there. 

Thanks again! Give me a few days to get all these read and sorted through - a winner post will be out soon!