Ah! The good old days.. *sniff*
By
4_Thirty_5,
Posted on: 2006-10-03 21:15 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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I remember MacAllen charging into a full spawn the one time he grouped with us in Beta...and promptly getting killed because the entire group was unprepared for it.
I remember the Cows.
I remember playing in Freak Force, which I believe was the second or third SG made in Beta.
I remember someone on the original forums had a character whose sole ability was to be able to summon Cheerleaders. Great stories!
I remember Qlop (actually, I remember him from the Anarchy Online Beta, too. I argued with him there just as much!)
I remember shelving my first Live character because his attack chain wasn't good enough.
I remember when Invisibility (now Superior Invisibility) + Hover took me 10 minutes to get to the top of the trees in Perez Park because it had the built in Slow that Stealth had.
I remember having a characters costume reset because she looked too naked (in beta...I was trying to prove a point!)
I remember how disappointed I was that I couldn't catch the Rikti attack ship during the Rikti Invasion...despite having 6 slotted Flight.
I remember writing a post asking Cryptic and NCSoft to have some sort of memorial for Coyote -- the first ever fan to post on the old forums, and writer of the "Welcome to City Of Heroes FAQ." (I'd "known" him online for quite some time over on the Safehouse.)
I remember my first encounter with the Knives of Artemis, and the numerous "Ow, my feet!" jokes afterwards.
That's enough for now...back to the spreadsheets!
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I too remember the Insane CoW Posse and some of the better screenshots they had in the closed beta when there were only 300 players. I loved the one where they posed in front of the Steakhouse in Steel Canyon.
Of course the funniest thiong I saw was the guys who did "Ace and Gary" of the "Ambiguously [censored] Duo" (from Saturday Night Live) once we got letters and Numbers as costume pieces - yes, when I jouned beta you couldn't have a letter on your chest; and the trams only went to specific zones, so you had to ride them from point a to point b and zone multiple times.
[Just here for the weekend; NCSoft sent an e-mail my account was re-activated 'free of charge' through Sunday; so I thought I'd come see what if anything changed - so far, not much 
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I remember trying to solo the cape mission before it was toned down and Rikti swords were bugged and did increased damage. One hit and my ma/regen scrapper almost hit the floor. The room was full of Lts with the swords so I had to get my dark/dark pal to help me.
I remember the day when I first witnessed "herding". It was my new friend playing an ice tank. He herded gobs and gobs of baddies (before the aggro cap) and brought them back to our spines scrapper who almost instantly dropped all of them.
I remember the first time I used Energy Transfer after a herding experience in the warehouse into a tight corner. I had them stacked and crawling all over me. Hit that ET button and WHAMO I'm faceplanted in the floor. That was SO cool. I suppose I could still do this but herding is not so popular with teams these days, and of course not as fruitful.
I remember Winter Lord.
>.>
<.<
What... what??
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I remember when the pre-beta boards had some of the more vocal members of the forums being Moderators.
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Jazz, MacAllen, Geist and SENSAI are the four I remember. I think there was a fifth, but I'm not entirely sure.
I remember that Jazz was usually the first person to reply to anyone doing a "Hi, I'm new here" post.
I remember when Fallout was post-SELF-defeat (like self-rezzes, but without the rez part...), instead of the current post-OTHER-defeat.
I remember when EMPulse didn't accept Accuray enhancements and caused a self-disorient.
I remember when you'd lose major parts of the geography (such as the Kings' Row tram station) if you went below 70% World Detail.
I remember the massive outrage when they went from freeform power selection to ATs.
I remember when Enervating Field was an AoE, auto-hit, damage targeted toggle. Level 8 Rad Defs could solo in Brickstown with all the melee wolves there, if they picked EF and Hover. Only because police drones didn't eat all xp from things they teleported.
I remember when you could buy tier 2 & 3 inspirations from contacts and those inspirations were x2/x3 in strength compared to tier 1.
I remember when the Backalley Brawler was missing his hands.
I remember getting compliments for my first costume... Which was made by clicking the Random button until something non-atrocious came up. I didn't want to waste too much time on the costume creator for my first session.
I remember when many people could no longer use their beta forum accounts because they used another account for live.
I wasn't in Beta, but I was on the first week the game went live.
I remember the thrill of rolling my first toon and finding my friends who left EQ at the same time.
I remember hunting Hydras in perez park.
I remember doing my first tf, and being almost unstoppable with my Inv tank, thanks to having slotted my energy resistance.
I remember dinging 14, and learning to fly the first time.
I remember dinging 18, and truly learning what it is to feel like a tank.
I remember the insane chain death that ensued during my sg's first respec trial. I got my cape and 2nd costume just before it.
I remember getting to 35 without unyielding Stance, because I wanted to be mobile, and then they changed the power. That was a good day.
I remember most of my friends leaving for WoW.
I remember when Super Speed and Fly stacked.
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I remember my tank being on a team of 8 (good friends) and watching them all get butchered by the 5th (remember them?) and being the last man standing...then taking down every one of those Column punks.
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I remember being one of two healers on a team of 8 friends getting butchered by 5th column while the Invul. Tanker was able to withstand everything thrown at him, but wasn't able to clear the room himself. I was the Recovery Healer, while the other healer was the front lines healer. I retrieved and rezzed, and he did the healing. We were finally able to overcome tohe group, and I remember thinking, "Now this is a challenge. Having to gradually overcome these guys!"
* I remember having Smoke grenade and flying through enemies for hours on hours, and STILL not being able to level past level 32. *sigh*
..and I remember all my friends coming BACK from WOW.. very cool
I remember standing in the lake in Perez park with a few dozen other heroes when the "pre-invasion" was going on during beta. Rikti spawning in mass in there. Most of us had never ever SEEN Rikti.
I remember any doubts I had about the game's potential being washed away the moment I saw something the size of the Rikti ship actually moving.
I remember when Perez Park was so full there were often three or four instances of it running at the same time.
I, too, remember the cows.
I remember Boxhead.
I remember when you could use rest while your personal field was up.
I remember the abundance of political interest groups that created Super Groups. I'm thankful they eventually realized it wasn't getting them anywhere, and seem to have left.
KILL SKULS!
I remember The Column.
I remember the TF to restore Sister Psyche.
I remember my first hero having a black and red outfit.
I remember that I made my first Invul look like the Tick, and had him jumping from rooftop to rooftop in King's Row whilst screaming "SPOON" in broadcast.
I also remember meeting the Paladin for the very first time on the tank, and trying desperatly to get it's attention as it slaughtered my team...
I remember using the Hydra trial to completely skip 5 levels of the game in a couple hours.
I remember sitting at the tram as people killed stuff in the zone and I got credit for it.
I remember the first time I did the Kronos Titan mission, 8 men on Invincible, and we nearly wiped, but my Dark Melee/Invul Scrapper was able to single handedly pull the team out of the fire, while everyone gasped and cheered me on.
I remember on Infinity, there was an SG of empaths, who spent the bulk of their time helping people in the Hollows, even going so far as to create their own global channel so that people in needed could immediately contact them. Their one of the reasons I wish I still played on Infinity.
I remember the first time I saw a Police Drone (the SG, not the NPCs), and realized that I HAD to be one of them.
I remember hitting level 10 and getting my first power that did damage.
Illusion / Emp Controllers were able to gimp themselves, Flash was a 0 damage sleep only, I made it to level 10 using only Brawl (and teaming with Brawl, Havok, Onysis and others).
Oh! Oh! I haven't seen this one.
I remember when Hasten was a _toggle_.
I (like many others) remember spending my first 2 hours making my character, and the remaining hour actually playing. And that was when we had about one THIRD of the costume options there are now.
I remember when my AR/Dev soloed mobs of +6 purples in IP with nothing more than a bag full of smoke grenades and a box of trip mines.
I remember (vividly) combining my first set of training enhancements, and the triumphant sound of success, with the halo of light around the newly empowered enhancement. (That whole process bugs the crap out of me now, it takes too long 
)
I remember the sheer giddy excitement when I FINALLY unlocked Fly, and soared around Steel Canyon, stopping at every rooftop to drink in the view.
I remember that black day when the Soldiers of Rularuu invaded our dimension. I remember the screech of the Emergency Broadcast, warning of 'dimensional instabilities' all over the city. And my first, horrifying glimpse of those giant spiked eyeballs shooting jets of flame and flinging spines in all directions. I remember hunting them and their Brutes down for hours in the streets of Steel Canyon, trying to save the city I had come to love.
When it was hard to find an SL7+ to venture into Parez Park 4
Aaah yes...The Rulaaru Invasion.
I remember being in Talos Island during that time, south of the Skyway City gate. My team and I were fighting some Tsoo when the eyeballs popped in from nowhere. Everyone else hightailed it outta there except me. I hid behide some crates and waited for them to move off. It took awhile, and for a little bit, I was completely surrounded by them, but they didn't see me (oddly...).
I remember my first time flying...man, what a thrill!
I remember first zoning into Atlas Park. The music was perfect.
I remember trying to find Ms. Liberty for the first time. I had no idea where she was supposed to be.
I remember the first time I jumped off a tall building. My stomach leapt up into my throat. I still get that effect even today.
I remember the first day I2 came out, and I did my cape mission. I then met up with one of my old SG mates, and the first thing he said was, "You got....A CAPE!!!"
I remember trying to figure out how the tram works......
I remember the first time I tried the Synapse TF....half the team of 6 quit after the first three missions. It was down to me, a controller, and a defender. Babbage was a long fight, but we took him down. The Clockwork King however, was not possible. Couldn't get him.
I remember the battles between the 5th Column and the Council.
I remember seeing Striga Isle for the first time.....
I remember Halloween of '04.....
So many memories......
*When newbie-zones were so crowded with Players, that the street Mobs would suddenly wink-out for minutes at a time and stop spawning.
*When you could stand still for two minutes and not be stuck with an Auto-AFK message over your head.
*When real Internet DJs held real Dance Parties in-game up top the Atlas Globe and other such locations.
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*When newbie-zones were so crowded with Players, that the street Mobs would suddenly wink-out for minutes at a time and stop spawning.
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I remember 4 Atlas parks.
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
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*When newbie-zones were so crowded with Players, that the street Mobs would suddenly wink-out for minutes at a time and stop spawning.
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I remember 4 Atlas parks.
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4?? You're getting warmer...
I remember Aura, before CuppaJo.
I remember :-
- Hunting Hydra in Perez (I still miss doing this, was good fun)
- When exiting and re-entering the mission door used to heal you.
- When monsters had levels
- When everyone rushed to defeat Lusca, and you had to beg to get invited to one of the many teams fighting it.
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*When newbie-zones were so crowded with Players, that the street Mobs would suddenly wink-out for minutes at a time and stop spawning.
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I remember 4 Atlas parks.
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4?? You're getting warmer...
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I believe that was when the capes first came out wasn't it? On infinity that was the biggest insurgance of people in AP in.....well probably the greatest insurgance ever. You didn't dare go into the cityhall otherwise you might be d/c'ed by all the heroes hovering around the poor little npc in the middle.
When you could use MasterCard to pay for NCSoft stuff...
- The Rikti Slideshow event; massive lagfest the last night of BETA for CoH. Was quite fun despite the lag!
- The excitement of being in CoH before everyone else with the two-day headstart.
- The relief of being level 10 or so before everyone else had created their first toon!
- The relief of being in ONE instance of SC while everyone was shouting in the mayhem that was 10 instances of AP the day the game went Live.
- The Vahzilok Disease bug and waiting for a Police Drone to show up to "cure me".
- Task Forces so bugged, you didn't even attempt them.
- No capes
- No respecs
- Front-loaded missions, oh yes I remember those well.
- Hollows!? I ground out my xp the hard way, in places like PP and SC.
- No outdoor missions.
- Wow this is dating me!
- No PvP of any kind!
- Villains were someone you fought, not someone you played.
- My mature friends complaining about the "little kiddies" that first summer and nearly quitting because of them. Thankfully most are still around, mature friends that is.
- The first time I went into Boomtown and being in awe at the sheer size of the place! Yes, those fires have been burning an aweful long time!
- Watching my tank friends herd entire missions and enjoying the sheer mass arrest of dozens and dozens of bad guys! We used alot of pepper spray back then for crowd control.
- Listening to Star of America on Teamspeak shout "RUN AWAY!" or "NO!!!!" or mopping the floor with a n00b team member, because they shot at the mobs before the tank had finished herding. GOODSTUFF! You had to be there. 
Hi, Star of America, we miss you!
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I remember the Cows.
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Heck, I remember playing the first one, the original Mad Cow.
Bovine Bialies for all.