The Old Days

[Snarky]

I used to love making a new villain, busting out of the Zig, and hitting Fort Darwin.  On Freedumb back in the day there was a steady trickle of villains and we could rob the bank in Mercy for a few levels.  It is a different game now.  Share some stories!

 

[Greycat]

Starting back in i3...

 

First character, got him into the hollows. Don't recall what mission I was trying to get him to, but suddenly seeing this giant, floating skeletal thing conning purple. Seemed like something I should *really* avoid (having not fought COT at the time...)

 

Also, on a different character (the one who'd be my first 50,) doing missions with a team in the Hollows and seeing this white floating thing come out of the door and fly off... hooked on Kheldians since.

[Yomo Kimyata]

Back in the good old days, a luck charm was actually worth something!

[JasperStone]

Early on, when I first joined,  I heard someone in chat talk about street sweeping and how the xp was higher.

 

There I was on my first character, an Emp/Elec defender, charging into huge mobs.

 

The Debt accrued was glorious

 

[cranebump]

First time out of AP, on what I think was my 2nd character (on any MMO) ever. Zoned into KR via tram. Bounded off the Tram, starting running toward the Detective contact that just popped up, and...

 

I suddenly get hit by electric bolts coming from somewhere. No travel power, no idea of the geography of the zone. Didn't think about tabbing targets. So I just bound around - like I'm playing "the ground is lava!" - until I fall over a fence and just die, never engaging with - never even seeing - the stupid clock spawn that's always lurking around the power station/culvert area there. 

 

Pretty sure I gave some witnesses an awesome show of noobness, though.:-)

[tidge]

Here is a memory from not-the-earliest-days-but-maybe-you-can-figure-out-when times: I remember being part of an somewhat active supervillain group (when those first went live), and then the leader basically gave up on the game. That left a whole bunch of us stuck with a group and base that we couldn't do anything with.

 

By the time I came back to that character and actually found myself "Leader" (and it was a long time, partially due to my own disgruntlement) the SG base was filled with all sorts of salvage in the storage racks we couldn't even use... and the interface wasn't quite working to be able to clean out all that now unnecessary salvage. what a PITA!

[A Cat]

1 hour ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

Back in the good old days, a luck charm was actually worth something!

Yeah, I remember street sweeping for low level magic salvaged back in the day. Did that a bit on HC when I first started before I figured out everything changed.

[carroto]

Ah the good old days.  People intentionally being annoying and spamming powers at the popular auction house locations, the complaints about which led to the indoor auction houses with the power dampening fields in Praetoria.  /ah may be the best feature of Homecoming.

[carroto]

1 hour ago, cranebump said:

I fall over a fence and just die

 

Yeah kind of similar story on my first character ever on Infinity, a Grav/Energy Dominator.  I was in Port Oakes doing newspaper missions and got this one door that's at the far end of the map in a deep red area.  I was really new and probably had managed to avoid trouble with street mobs by just blindly running past them.  However that didn't work with a large group of purple-conning Family mobs I ran past just before I got to the door.  It was quite a hike and I'm sure I didn't have a travel power, but finally there it is, the door is in sight, almost there....and I get hit with a barrage of gun fire and face plant just before getting inside.

[biostem]

4 hours ago, Snarky said:

Share some stories!

My avatar, as you may notice, is in the classic "rest" pose - that's because it's from one of my first screenshots I took of the game, before I knew you could free-move the mouse, and by using rest, it fixed your position, so you could rotate the camera.  He was a dm/regen scrapper back when IH was a toggle, and I got most of the way from 1-40, (before PI), by street sweeping.  I used to do laps of Bricktown...

Edited September 10, 2023 by biostem

[pawstruck]

Before "furry" was a word that anyone had ever heard of, I became friends with a group of them on accident. I just like animals (not like *that*...) and I liked making cat characters, which at the time had to be female if you wanted the ears. I ended up joining a SG of flurries unwittingly... Conversations got weirder and weirder, but I'm the kind of guy that likes random weird stuff, drama, and conflict, so I stayed around for a while pretending to vibe with them.

 

Weird as hell.

[Doomguide2005]

So many memories

• Participating in my first ever closed beta, freeing Lady Jane and watching her tear off to aggro seemingly  everything before dying predictably.
• Finding myself lost, with nothing but deeply purple DE in sight, on the far side of the woods in Eden and having a now former teammate get an sgmate come and recall friend me safely to the gate.
• Sheesh Mito's/Hami have some perception and range (while grabbing exploration badges)
• Watching a level 50 Stormie herd what seemed like the entirety of the Hollows while I plastered myself against the War Wall hoping none of the horde noticed me.
• Falling out of my chair the first time a Council foe went all Wolfie on me in IP.
• Going toe to toe with two Fake Nemesis bosses in PI.  They were lvl 47 I was lvl 42 on my BS/Regen.  The next time online my IH was no longer a toggle.
• First time I ran my lowbie Emp/Rad as part of Green Machine (i5?).  Crushing everything very purple despite all red or empty slots.
• While duoing with my friend on his Blaster the both of us laughing insanely when a Goblin landed on his head first time we played in Croatoa.
• The first time my friends and I having just leveled up all used Full Auto after surrounding a mob on a large outdoor map.

Nostalgia. Such a potent feeling.

[BazookaTwo]

I miss teleporting into cracks in the map architecture and being in places that confounded other players.

[Dona Eis Requiem]

I miss the old-school sewer runs. Going all the way through until you got out in Steel or Skyway then hopping into street sweeping mode. *sigh* That shit was FUN!

[WumpusRat]

5 hours ago, carroto said:

Ah the good old days.  People intentionally being annoying and spamming powers at the popular auction house locations, the complaints about which led to the indoor auction houses with the power dampening fields in Praetoria.  /ah may be the best feature of Homecoming.

Pretty sure /ah predates HC. It was a veteran reward if I remember correctly, which existed on live.

 

But yeah, I remember the days of being happy at finding a luck charm, since they'd sell for 50k or so. I'd hunt magical enemies specifically just to get more drops of them, to finance my early levels. 

[Glacier Peak]

Portal Corp after the level increase and Monster Island shenanigans. 

 

Blue cube under the arenas in Galaxy City, Talos Island, and Peregrine Island.

 

Pumpkin Giant Monster during first Halloween event. 

 

Winter Lord at the first winter holiday event. 

 

City of Heroes beta conclusion where the devs played their signature characters against the villains. 

 

First few weeks after the Arena issue where the PvP game was new to everyone.

 

Street sweeping in Hazard Zones like Perez Park, The Hollows, Crey's Folly and Eden. 

 

First play through villain side after they increased level cap and added Grandville and it's many amazing story arcs. 

 

Statesman Task Force and Lord Recluse Strike Force. 

 

Epic Archetypes were rare because the level 50 unlock requirement, so it was cool to see them when they first came out and the many Quantums they brought to teams.

 

Getting behind the War Walls in nearly every hero zone (Original Faultline, behind the dam was my highlight).

 

Making my first character, I feel like it was a Blaster, maybe elect/elect? But when I unlocked Hover I was emphatically attached to the game - I needed those 14 levels before Fly and it was a journey back then to get to that point.  

 

First Hamidon raid I participated in was awesome and made me realize I needed to upgrade my computer memory size. 

[American Decoy]

Messing up my first costume and having to walk Steel Canyon to Icon as a level 2.  I felt like Ripley in "Alien" trying to sing "You Are My Lucky Star" while not looking at the level ten monsters.

[Captain Fabulous]

Kids today will never know the joy of Hovering across Kings Row, Perez Park, or the Hollows.

[Captain Fabulous]

5 hours ago, BazookaTwo said:

I miss teleporting into cracks in the map architecture and being in places that confounded other players.

There are still a few places around you can do this.

[TheZag]

6 hours ago, BazookaTwo said:

I miss teleporting into cracks in the map architecture and being in places that confounded other players.

 

That isnt gone.  If you arent in Creys Folley,  then there is a way through.  You probably wont confuse as many people but most zones are still full of holes.

 

My old days was thinking people were actually writing out <bleep> or <!@#$%>.  I dont cuss myself but i thought they were censoring themselves to avoid getting in trouble.  I even told one of my real life friends he had to do that when he started playing.

 

[Troo]

14 hours ago, Snarky said:

and hitting Fort Darwin.

+1

 

I also miss base raids.

[Without_Pause]

First weekend. Just a group of us running missions and hanging out in old school Hollows. I was just blown away by the experience.

[smnolimits43]

I remember when KR was lag town 🙂

[Solarverse]

I miss the original Hollows. I mean, I really miss the original Hollows and was horrified at the change they made to it. I was beyond horrified, I was outright livid, lol.

[Scarlet Shocker]

I see we're bringing out that old alter ego of a superheroine, Rose Tinted-Glass. Everything was better "back in the day" of course, and it was in the spring of ought six that I finally arrived at Paragon.

 

I think the game has improved greatly since I first joined. There are always some things I dislike, for example the Hollows revamp - but then again I learned to loathe the Hollows quite early on, despite it having some of the absolute best content in the game. I learned to hate it not because of the difficulty of the zone compared to what I'd been used to but because it was the only feasible way to level through without street sweeping, which I also loathe. There was no alternative at that time so it became a thing to be endured through gritted teeth.

 

Frostfire, Wincott et al have great stories and make you actually feel quite heroic if you complete the arcs in sequence. You go in as a rookie newbie in spandex, and come out having taken down some serious threats who have fortified themselves in Eastgate, rescued a kid from certain death, and learned that you and a small team can do what the whole of Longbow, Hero Corpse and the PPD could not. But that glory palls after the 117th time.

 

The Hollows revamp was less necessary than the option of a good alternative to it - an ability to choose paths perhaps.

 

Now of course it's so easy (arguably too easy) to miss the entire zone by levelling superfast to 20 and doing stuff that grown-ups do - which again cheapens the zone and in many ways I'd say the game overall. Sure, if you're a veteran, you don't want to do the boot camp thing too many times but now we have the option of all the origin arcs, plus DFB it's a lot easier to be selective - but I fear we all have a less rich experience by missing low content entirely.