Any *old old* game things you kinda miss?

[RikOz]

On 7/25/2022 at 12:57 PM, Acroyear said:

I miss the old Yellow and Green lines for the Tram. You use to have to figure out how to get around the city, and it was fun and a challenge. There was a reason to be a part of a Supergroup as that group would work to build Telepads that could make getting around the city easier because it was a team effort. These days the Zones all seem empty of heroes and villains because everyone has a built in teleport system with a short cooldown, or everyone uses Ouroboros as a transport hub (which I absolutely hate). By making getting around the Paragon City and the Rogue Isles too easy, the Devs have made the game feel like a ghost town unless you happen to be hanging out in either Atlas Park or Mercy Island. 

 

On 7/25/2022 at 1:28 PM, PLVRIZR said:

I'll echo the nostalgia of no travel power until 14 and the separate tram lines, but remember all those "features" were a way to keep me subscribing and drawing the timeline out further and further...

Indeed, I'm not a fan of "artificial" constraints that are only there to increase the playtime/logged-in time. I mean, really, this having to take a tram from zone to zone in a game universe where people can fly under their own power stretches credulity until you realize it's entirely because of loading screens. Taking the tram accounts for the loading screens in a way that flying to a zone border and then waiting through a loading screen doesn't. I recall reading that one thing that immediately set World of Warcraft apart from the competition was the absence of loading screens between zones. You could simply walk straight from one zone to the next with no waiting; the only loading screens were when you traveled between continents (and later, different dimensions), or entered instanced content. The only comparable travel issue in WoW was that, in the early days of using flight paths/"taxis", you could only fly one stage at a time. Take a flight from A to B, then another from B to C, and so on until you reached your destination. But they had changed that before I started playing that game, so that, now, you just have to pick your destination (or the closest flight point to it, if you haven't yet "discovered" a flight point in your destination zone) and the game will calculate the best route to take all in one go.

 

On 7/27/2022 at 12:56 AM, Gulbasaur said:

Thinking about map stuff, there are a couple of things in the early game maps that made me wonder why the devs just never did anything with them. There are some really cool map areas. The shantytown in Crey's Folly. Monkey Island. The broken city in Eden. So much of it has 10/10 atmosphere and whoever was putting those maps together clearly enjoyed what they were doing and did it very well, but it was just never used. Some are clear "street sweeping" areas, but there is so much cool map stuff with lore that is just never really touched. 

 

It's a bit less prevalent redside (although I do think some redside maps feel a bit rushed), although the Wards both have a bit of it going on too. Striga is probably the most "integrated" map, in my opinion, as the task forces and story arcs there use the map for storytelling.

I've had the same thoughts. Even with mission maps, there are certain rooms that almost never contain enemies or objectives. I'm also continually surprised at the utter lack of utilization of the buildings in Founders Falls. In over three years on Homecoming, and at this point having more than fifty alts of high enough level to spend time in FF, I have encountered exactly ONE mission, on one occasion, that has sent me to a building door in FF. Every mission I've obtained from a FF contact either sends me to buildings in different zones, or sends me to caves or sewers in FF. I've accepted alignment tip missions while in FF, and if the mission requires entering a building, it sends me scampering off to a different zone. Any radio missions I've accepted in FF strictly send me to caves or sewers. The only explanation I can come up with is that FF appears to be primarily a residential zone, and there are no "apartment building" maps. There aren't many "commercial" buildings at all, and certainly no warehouses.

[Luminara]

Functional AI.  We have pets deciding not to tag along because they're rather lick a spot on a wall, NPC allies who run around in circles, escorts refusing to go up a 1 degree incline or a single step, and enemies running from petless masterminds.

[Troo]

2 hours ago, Luminara said:

We have pets deciding not to tag along because they're rather lick a spot on a wall, NPC allies who run around in circles, escorts refusing to go up a 1 degree incline or a single step, and enemies running from petless masterminds.

 

my petless mastermind is very tall

[Azari]

I miſs þe old Iron Will inſpirations, like þe one ſhown in my forum avatar. 

[Techwright]

15 hours ago, Azari said:

I miſs þe old Iron Will inſpirations, like þe one ſhown in my forum avatar. 

Iron Will seems to be showing up in the auction house, though based on the pricing, you might want to take out a bank loan first.

 

[FrauleinMental]

17 hours ago, Techwright said:

Iron Will seems to be showing up in the auction house, though based on the pricing, you might want to take out a bank loan first.

 

 

I think that's one of those market history glitches.  Iron Will hasn't been around since the old days on Live, but since some were still out there when AH was developed they coded an entry for it.  But they've never existed in HC, and I think I'd heard of people storing inf in bids for such non-existent objects because they can't possibly sell.

 

I imagine some people would be enraged if the devs suddenly seeded those. 🙂

[nightroarer]

On 7/26/2022 at 2:37 AM, Gulbasaur said:

I kind of agree, particularly with the cape and aura missions. They were kind of character milestones. The only things you really "earn" on a character now are the accolades. 

 

The P2W/premium rewards stuff I could take or leave - it wasn't in the early game so for me it's not a problem. 

For me, auras yes, capes no.

 

It always seemed silly to me to have to wait until such a late level to add a cape to your costume. Capes are a staple of superhero costumes and should be available at character creation.

 

Unless you're Mr. Incredible, of course. Then "no capes!"

 

I still run the cape missions on occasion (even on caped characters) just as a change of pace. 🙂

[Coyotedancer]

I was pretty much the opposite... If I was making, let's say, one of my Oranbegan characters, having to wait until they were halfway through the game to get their glowing eyes was just annoying. It bothered me more than having to wait a shorter time for a cape on some of the others.  

[JasperStone]

That first day logging in ... and seeing all these amazing characters floating overhead, or speeding by, or rocketing off to fly away ...

[Doomguide2005]

7 hours ago, JasperStone said:

That first day logging in ... and seeing all these amazing characters floating overhead, or speeding by, or rocketing off to fly away ...

I've had that feeling twice now 😁

Just waiting now to experience it a third ... computer's been dead and unreplaced now for about 2y6m.  *Soon*

[FoxyPrime]

I never felt any sense of accomplishment from "earning" anything when it was really just waiting for the game to let me have it due to arbitrary time gates, RNG, or grinding. I've only grown to detest time wasting game design more and more over the years and I do not agree with any argument that supports such designs.

 

The game honestly feels better now than it did back in the day, with quests that feel engaging, stories that draw me in, and wrapped up with a boss fight that feels epic, all with a character set up the way I like it attained in a reasonable time. That actually feels like a triumph and it isn't undermined by frustration and boredom from tedious padding. I can go in and enjoy things at my own pace. MUCH better than street sweeping, cleaning out substations, and putting up with an unreliable mess of a team full of selfish elitists. I feel like my time is well spent and respected, not wasted.

Edited August 14, 2022 by FoxyPrime

[Kinestron]

I miss completely new powersets with new animations, particle and sound effects(not that the devs back then didn't recycle some old stuff and call it new).

 

I miss when a tank would round up a quarter of the map in Peregrine.

 

I also miss tactical play such as when the group would wait as a Devices blaster would lay about 5 or 6 mines, zoom away to keep them from activating, the tank would bring a group back over the mines, blaster zooms back in to activate all mines at once and then your computer would play a slideshow.

[srmalloy]

19 hours ago, Kinestron said:

I also miss tactical play such as when the group would wait as a Devices blaster would lay about 5 or 6 mines, zoom away to keep them from activating, the tank would bring a group back over the mines, blaster zooms back in to activate all mines at once and then your computer would play a slideshow.

Fun fact: If you did this in the 'northeast Boomtown' map of the 'close the dimensional ruptures' wolf farm, and the Blaster kept planting Trip Mines until the Tanker called out that they were inbound to the dumpster, if you were too close to the dumpster when the Blaster zoomed back in, you'd get a pop-up from the game engine throwing an error: "Too many effects to render". It didn't crash your client, but it was fun to see that it was possible to overload the game.

[Zep]

On 7/26/2022 at 7:25 AM, JasperStone said:

Fire/kin troller with 12 imps out

12 - BAH and Humbug!

 

I used to break 20+ at times.

[JasperStone]

19 hours ago, Zep said:

12 - BAH and Humbug!

 

I used to break 20+ at times.

Exactly

[MistressOhm]

Using the Paragon Dance Party as a secret transit hub (then Pocket D was created and it took over the role). 

 

Supergroups had to work at unlocking beacons for the teleporters.  

 

Street sweeping in groups.  Working from one end of Steel to the other, you could get 2, 3, sometimes 4 levels easily.  

 

Superadine Troll Raves.  Nothing like getting off the tram in Skyway and seeing a HORDE of SupaTrolls mobbing the police drones.

 

The first time you put down a Carnie on a melee character, and encountered the end-drain death effect.   Uh oh. 

 

Getting punted off teams when you used Build Up / Group Teleport / Fulcrum Shift / nuke PBAoE, and the whole team was suspended in midair as the spawn that everyone was teleported into just...  died.  "What the HELL?? Stop that!"  

[srmalloy]

2 hours ago, MistressOhm said:

Superadine Troll Raves.  Nothing like getting off the tram in Skyway and seeing a HORDE of SupaTrolls mobbing the police drones.

I'm not sure why, but it seems that all the Supa Trolls are hard-coded to find their way up to the area between the tram and the park Synapse is in; if no one thins the herd when they're raving, all of them will become Supa Trolls and head for the park. At the height of the AE powerlevel craze back on Live, the number of heroes spending time in Skyway was much smaller, and fewer people came back to the newbie zones for things that didn't get them XP, so you saw more Supa Troll swarms.

 

[MistressOhm]

Yah that resulted in a lot more Paladin spawns (often 2 at once) because the whole point is to fry the Clockwork BUILDING the Pally, before he's completed.  That's how the badge was supposed to work, at any rate.

 

But if no one's fighting the little guys... you get Big Monster.

[Black Talon]

Agreed with the notation about map designs with character; this was part of the reason that, pre-Shutdown, I wasn't really too ticked off about having to wait till 14 to pick up a travel power, as I loved working through the various single-digit zones, taking in the ambiance and the architecture.  I still find Perez Park to be enormously intimidating and almost spooky as the sun is going down, and I love working through Kings Row's block upon block of low-rise, lower-middle class housing, again, especially at sundown and after dark.

 

This remains part of the reason that, now, on HC,, I don't pick up a travel power for my alts until level 12; gives me time to run around (sometimes at an uncomfortably slow pace, true), getting the feel for an area and appreciating the sheer depth of imagination that went into this game's environment; even if we get only the most superficial aspects while flying/jumping/teleporting above.

[ILIWAPCT]

On 7/26/2022 at 9:08 AM, Erratic1 said:

While I understand why it was changed and fully support that change, I kinda miss the original version of the respec trial in Terra Volta which was hard to succeed at unless you had a good team with good builds...

 

...the precise type of builds which did not need a respec.

Recently did the Red Side respec and brought back all those memories of teams desperately trying and failing the quitting. 

 

Exactly as you said "the precise type of builds which did not need a respec"

 

Anyway now I've set it as a "goal" for all my alts to run it... 

[Solarverse]

Yeah, I miss when the game was still in its first couple of years, before they nerfed everything to hell and back while simultaneously making the game easier. i also miss the times before they added an aggro cap and and before ED. IMO the game was just a much better game in those days.

[Zep]

On 8/23/2022 at 3:59 PM, ILIWAPCT said:

Recently did the Red Side respec and brought back all those memories of teams desperately trying and failing the quitting. 

 

Exactly as you said "the precise type of builds which did not need a respec"

 

Anyway now I've set it as a "goal" for all my alts to run it... 

 

I remember when the respec trial first came out and everyone and their brother was running it with all the 'broken' characters.

[biostem]

14 hours ago, Solarverse said:

I miss when the game was still in its first couple of years, before they nerfed everything to hell and back

I fondly remember running around Brickstown and Crey's Folly on my DM/Regen Scrapper, when IH was still a toggle, street-sweeping for hours... fun times!

[Megajoule]

On 8/24/2022 at 4:37 PM, Zep said:

 

I remember when the respec trial first came out and everyone and their brother was running it with all the 'broken' characters.

And it was not uncommon for those poor people to outright fail it.  I'd be standing around outside the entrance and see the doors open and a full team would pop out and faceplant on the pavement. 😲

 

Things I miss (and don't, but still remember):

 

The original character select screen, with custom flairs for each Origin (back when those actually almost mattered).

 

I'm getting a little too far from my mentor!

My mentor is assisting me again.

 

Related to the above, having to play sidekick/exemplar tetris to get everyone on a TF, and praying that no one dropped in the middle.

 

The street fights between Fifth Column and the Council when the latter were introduced, and how the devs insisted the replacement of the former with the latter wasn't because of the then-imminent release of CoV (only to admit, years later, that it totally was - and for reasons that became moot as development continued).

 

Travel powers at 14, Stamina at 20.

 

The content drought (desert, even) in the late 30s, when you ran out of all of your Issue 0 arcs and missions and had to grind your way to 40 and the start of Issue 1 content in Peregrine, often by street-sweeping.

 

Outleveling story arcs, with no way to go back and complete them. 😞

 

Playing a Taxibot. 🙂

 

Edited August 27, 2022 by Megajoule

[kelika2]

I miss street sweeping being a viable form of leveling up