Grandpa, tell me about the old days...

[Scarlet Shocker]

loving this thread.

 

I don't know if it's possible but I would LOVE to play on a pre-invention Server. (Issue 9?)

 

That would be real nostalgia. Don't get me wrong I think inventions truly enhanced the game but as some have pointed out they did facilitate a more homogeneous kind of character.

[SeraphimKensai]

5 hours ago, nihilii said:

Also, no AoE caps. Burn obliterated everything, and the standard build advice for a Fire Tanker was to take Burn and Hasten and not bother with secondary attacks. You needed the power picks and slots anyway, no inherent Stamina at the time and no ED either, so it made sense to 6-slot Hasten for recharge, 6-slot attacks for damage, grab Focused Accuracy to hit stuff, and so on.

 

Way back in i2 when the Eden Trial was released, yes we used to burn a lot of it with Fire Tankers, but we couldn't have Focused Accuracy (as it didn't exist until i3).

 

 

14 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:

And boy were those Crystal Titan Origin enhancements awesome! Especially before getting your hands on Hamidon Origin enhancements. They used to only exist between the 40s if memory serves me right.

That's correct. Although the Eden Trial was added after the Hamidon. When i1 raised the level cap to 50, Hamidon was leveled to scale for lvl 50s. i1 also added the abandoned sewer trial for lvl 40s. i2 added the Cavern of Transcendence and the Eden Trial. The Eden Trial had a range from 39-41, and for the longest time a bug that the leader had to be in the level range to start it (couldn't be higher). But it dropped Titan-O's were like jr HOs for a range up to lvl 43 iirc.

[UltraAlt]

31 minutes ago, El D said:

Seeing the Winter Event for the first time ever (and getting pancaked by the Winter Lord).

 

Logging into the game stuck in the ice!

I had a bunch of characters that I parked in water back then (before day jobs).

[Yeah, I was parking characters certain places even before characters gain credit for it. I had a flying character that I alway parked in  a chimney in Steel Canyon I think, so that I could go flying out of it when I zoned into the game. I parked plant themed characters in trees or bushes. parked near doors so that my character would walk out of the door when I zoned in.]

[UltraAlt]

37 minutes ago, El D said:

Traveling around took so much longer back in the old days (between movement speeds being much lower and having to be level 14 before ever getting a travel power)

 

The slower travel speeds made the game maps seem so much larger and grandiose.

I used to love watching teams fly/run/jump by while I was street-sweeping somewhere.  

[El D]

18 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

 

The slower travel speeds made the game maps seem so much larger and grandiose.

I used to love watching teams fly/run/jump by while I was street-sweeping somewhere.  

 

You know, that's a fair point! Like, on one hand it required more time spent doing the 'between the missions' part, but it also gave you more time spent exploring and interacting with other players. I remember having actual, full conversations while flying/hovering through zones, which isn't really much of a thing anymore with the mass teleport options available now. It basically forced players see more of the setting and get to know the layout of things rather than skipping entire zones worth of content.

 

Travel time took longer back then, but given how much more prevalent street sweeping was, it actually was more of a gameplay thing than it is now.

Edited February 13, 2023 by El D

[SeraphimKensai]

18 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

I used to love watching teams fly/run/jump by while I was street-sweeping somewhere.  

When the game first came out it used to be something to behold a character dinging lvl 6 and hovering over the Perez Park wall, or running free from trouble atop the trees.

 

But yeah hitting lvl 14 and getting a legit travel powers felt like a developmental milestone.

[0th Power]

12 minutes ago, SeraphimKensai said:

When the game first came out it used to be something to behold a character dinging lvl 6 and hovering over the Perez Park wall, or running free from trouble atop the trees.

 

But yeah hitting lvl 14 and getting a legit travel powers felt like a developmental milestone.

You weren’t hovering in Perez until lv 7, as there were level restrictions in hazard zones. 😁

[Captain Fabulous]

1 hour ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

loving this thread.

 

I don't know if it's possible but I would LOVE to play on a pre-invention Server. (Issue 9?)

 

That would be real nostalgia. Don't get me wrong I think inventions truly enhanced the game but as some have pointed out they did facilitate a more homogeneous kind of character.

If SEGS ever gets up and running we'll be able to play I2.

[Black Space]

I recall the "taxi service" in Hollows - which was just someone offering to TP folks from one side of the map to the other since it was just a chore(read dangerous)  to make it a mission.  Debt was a real problem - so when you got your travel power at 14 - it was a thrilling experience. 

 

This was also the time of perma-hasten which allowed multiple pets for controllers  out at once.  Strongest team I was ever on -was an Issue 4  all controller team - we had  3 fire/kins, 2 Ill/emp, 2 Grav/storm and 1 Ice/FF -  EACH toon multiple pets out - Fire kins had about 20 imps out, Illusions had multiple phantom armies and phantasms / and Gravs had  6 singes out  ... it was basically a league from an 8 toon team....... everything was obliterated 

 

Finally, you didn't have access to the kinds of resources we do now - (badge trackers, walkthrough websites etc).  So you had to really take your time and hope you had a friend that knew what was going on....

 

 

Edited February 13, 2023 by Black Space
typo

[SeraphimKensai]

39 minutes ago, 0th Power said:

You weren’t hovering in Perez until lv 7, as there were level restrictions in hazard zones. 😁

Wow I guess Alzheimer's is a thing. I remember trying to jump the wall and it being too tall. I guess it was lvl 7. At launch, I had a elec/elec blaster named Thunderspark on Guardian and I'm guessing I had lightning bolt, electric fence, ball lightning, lightning field, and short circuit by lvl 6, so I probably didn't get hover til 8.

[Redletter]

19 hours ago, Crysis said:

I don’t remember the old Eden Trial, but I do remember running around with a pack of other */Regen scrappers, all of us running perma-MOG.  It was glorious.  Unlimited +END, nigh-impenetrable +DEF and a teeny-tiny sliver of health.  You literally just ignored all your other Regeneration powers because you didn’t need them/couldn’t use them with MOG up all the time.  

 

But yeah…that’s a grandpa story.  It was OP as fxk.  Thus the skull crushing beatings Regen took from the nerf bat…repeatedly.

 

SO YOU'RE THE ONE TO BLAME!

[srmalloy]

58 minutes ago, Black Space said:

This was also the time of perma-hasten which allowed multiple pets for controllers  out at once. 

Don't forget that it was also the time of limited-lifespan pets, and pets that died when you passed through a door or used an elevator, so perma-haste was as much a tool to let you resummon your pets at each new floor as it was to getting multiple sets out.

[Doc_Scorpion]

28 minutes ago, srmalloy said:

Don't forget that it was also the time of limited-lifespan pets, and pets that died when you passed through a door or used an elevator, so perma-haste was as much a tool to let you resummon your pets at each new floor as it was to getting multiple sets out.

Oh, that's something I do not remember with fondness - when MM pets would poof on zoning and had to be resummoned when you got to your destination.  And the upgrade powers were single target, not AoE like they are now.  It was really tedious when MM's came blueside and you were on a team doing story arc mishes all over the city.

[PLVRIZR]

Was not on Beta, but bought the retail version on launch...pre-I1.  Still have the game manual (and welcome map...with Baumtown, Overbrook, Venice and Woodvale as zones) and remember the monthly subscription.  This thread is a reminder that it *was* a different game, geared to keeping you on the "hook".  Long slow grinds were the intent.  I fondly remember herding entire maps, but don't miss the tanker powers that kept you stationary (literally immovable), as in Rooted (Stone) and Unyielding Stance (Inv).

 

Once I learned that the mutant store was the closest store to the Yellow Line tram station in Steel, almost all my origins became that.  Getting safely to those DOs was paramount!  No travel power until 14 sucked, big time, mainly because Steel and Sky had separate train lines (as previously mentioned).  Finding "friends" to transfer influence was always a crapshoot, but I paid a 10% transfer fee, so everyone won.  I guess I didn't make enough early on to recognize the 99,999 limit, because I remember transferring millions, at a time.  Did get burned a couple of times...

 

Much prefer the game of today, and its near infinite flexibility.

[Cix]

Another thing folks might not remember is that it was really common to run out of contact missions.  We didn't have radios/papers or a find contact button.  There would be times you had no choice but to street sweep until you hit the next level band.

[Crysis]

7 hours ago, MoonSheep said:

 

started in issue 3 also, think you’ve summarised the era really well

 

pre-IOs archetypes used to be much more defined, e.g for an STF you’d want certain powersets to have a good chance of making it. i remember completing it in 40 minutes with a really switched on team and that a really good run time back then

 

rad defenders were in strong demand for AV battles

 

sirens call in 2006-2007 was *the* place to be. it would be swarmed on both red and blueside, people would make alts just for sirens

 

having a granite tank on the team was such a noticeable thing

 

Oh wow, yeah, I remember I had dozens of alts parked at level 30 or whatever -just- for Sirens.  Stalkers especially.  Because at that time that’s about all they were good for.

[Scarlet Shocker]

Get mezzed and ALL your toggles turned off so you'd literally have to stop and reset just to get back in the action.

 

 

Of course a lot of these issues are down to taking time out of the game - running to Skyway or Steel to do missions when nowadays we can TP to a mission instantly. It was a way to make you feel like you were playing, and filling in the time between content. Now we're so content rich we take time out the game with fine tuning those respecs and farming for those purples.

 

There is a certain nostalgia - the game felt a lot more... level there. Most players were in the same boat. Remember when it was a big deal to get your actual travel power at level 14? And FITNESS!!!!

 

[hastened]

6 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

 

The slower travel speeds made the game maps seem so much larger and grandiose.

I used to love watching teams fly/run/jump by while I was street-sweeping somewhere.  

I am actually doing this right now with a mastermind.  I decided to purposefully not take a travel power, and walk between all my missions, following a semi-rp style of movement (like, no jumping off cliffs, even though I would survive fine; find the stairs instead).  And its actually kind of awesome! I've been admiring all of the little details in the zones, how all the neighborhoods fit together, street sweeping out the spawns and the extra care involved in moving around.  Brings me back. 

 

I joined in I0, quit just before the I1 release, came back and seriously played from a few weeks before the CoV launch until I13 or so, then was out until coming back in I20.  I0 was special in a lot of ways; it was way slower and more brutal than today, but since I had come from everquest, it still felt friendly and like leveling at blazing speed.  I started with a Blaster, which was...less strong than a lot of potential choices.  There weren't any difficulty settings, so in some ways things were too easy, but the combination of not being able to afford enhancements and being a squishy blaster made up for it some.  I only got up into the low 20's before I decided the game didn't feel finished enough and stopped.  I think it had gotten to be pretty repetative without the difficulty slider, and the writing quality on the early missions is much worse than the later stuff.

 

The game was so, so much more fleshed out by the time I came back in I5.  There were a lot of good times in those days, City of Villains dropping, lots of high quality story arcs coming.  Faultline, Statesman Task Force, Rikti War Zone, Ouroboros, Imperious Task Force....loved that time. 

[JasperStone]

I think I came on board around I2 or I3

Pre-ED

Pre-Inherents

Debt...when it meant something

Taunting the entire map to the front door

 

[UltraAlt]

10 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Wow I guess Alzheimer's is a thing. I remember trying to jump the wall and it being too tall. I guess it was lvl 7. At launch, I had a elec/elec blaster named Thunderspark on Guardian and I'm guessing I had lightning bolt, electric fence, ball lightning, lightning field, and short circuit by lvl 6, so I probably didn't get hover til 8.

 

I remember running around looking for trees or other things to jump off of in order to get over those wall ... frustrating ... but good times!

[Supertanker]

Somebody's level 25 Family ambush hanging out in the woods in Perez Park while you're trying to get to a mission door...

[FeeFyeFoeFum]

I remember no aggro or target cap. Watching a tanker run round an entire instance map, with all the mobs trailing behind them. They would then jump inside a dumpster and the entire population of the map would jump and follow them inside. Cue the 7 blasters that would target the inside of the dumpster and watch the mobs melt and the xp flow. leave the mission and reset

 

CoH Dumpster diving. Grin

 

When it was only training, DO's and SO's for your powers (not counting HO's). The vendors/shops were not marked on the map, so you had to remember where the correct place to buy your correct enhancements when  you levelled up

[nihilii]

13 hours ago, Cix said:

Another thing folks might not remember is that it was really common to run out of contact missions.  We didn't have radios/papers or a find contact button.  There would be times you had no choice but to street sweep until you hit the next level band.

Or running each other's Frostfire + Atta arcs in a row on a team, haha. Nowadays you're lucky if you manage to reach either boss solo before you outlevel them...

[nihilii]

1 hour ago, FeeFyeFoeFum said:

When it was only training, DO's and SO's for your powers (not counting HO's). The vendors/shops were not marked on the map, so you had to remember where the correct place to buy your correct enhancements when  you levelled up

It did wonders for spatial awareness, didn't it. When I move through a map, I still get flashbacks of particular stores being at particular spots even though that knowledge hasn't been useful for 10+ years.

[Greycat]

14 hours ago, Cix said:

Another thing folks might not remember is that it was really common to run out of contact missions.  We didn't have radios/papers or a find contact button.  There would be times you had no choice but to street sweep until you hit the next level band.

 

Ugh.... Mix that with the higher debt cap, no "half debt in missions" ... my first 50, an elec/elec blaster, spent entire levels in debt and was out of contacts at 38 or so. That was painful.

 

(Also old debt cap of 1.1 million... went from zero to that in one hami raid.)