Obligatory "Back in the Day" Rant in Honor of i18
By
Adelie,
Posted on: 2010-08-10 21:09 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Back in my day, there wasn't no such thing as "Ninja Run". You had to sprint!
And Raid Teleporters didn't do a thing!
And Tyrant and Dominatrix were... *cough*.
...Forget that last one!
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When there used to be separate enhancements for Ranged and Cone Range.|
Originally Posted by Local_Man
There used to be separate types of enhancements for Endurance Drain and Endurance Recovery . . . before they were combined as Endurance Modification.
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As others have said: No capes. Level cap at 40. Instant healing a toggle. No store markers on the maps.
And later on, the vidiotmap map packs that displayed where the paths were in Perez so you didn't have to deal with the maze.
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Yeah what he said.
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Originally Posted by Olantern
In my early days (late i3),
- There was no "cooperative mission" completion. If you had the same mission as someone else on the team, the team did it twice. - There were no villains, no PvP zones, no arenas, no universities, no markets, no Day Jobs, and no flashback system. - There was a difficulty system, but it had many fewer options than what exists now, all with names that you had to learn like a code. - Because of the sidekicking rules explained above, it was easy to get stuck in situations where you were routinely fighting +6's, often with suboptimal enhancements. I vividly remember the second Task Force I ever ran, where every single thing on the Task Force was purple, and I did a grand total of 10 damage (as a level 28ish tank) to minions with a fully-slotted attack, the two or three times I managed to connect. - The i0 task forces, Moonfire, and Hess were the only ones available, aside from the Trials. No one had them memorized, as most people seem to today, making not just today's "speed runs" but even "moderately paced runs" impossible. My first TF ever (Synapse) took six and a half straight hours to complete. - There was no combining of inspirations, which made the death runs through the Hollows and Perez Park even worse. I remember trying to get one level 6 character to a door in Four Seasons and dying ten times over before giving up. - Debt seriously and significantly slowed down leveling, especially at high levels. Debt was not halved for dying inside a mission, and there was no such thing as patrol xp. - Kheldians took extra damage from most attacks. They were supposed to make up for this by teaming. Playing one was considered prestigious (though people still complained about them the way they do today). They didn't have their own story arcs. Those were added in i4 with no fanfare whatsoever. - Faultline was a hazard zone with DEEP chasms. Some could not be escaped without flight, teleport, or superjumping. The area behind the dam was blocked off but visible; people used to periodically get under the map to try to look at it. - Arachnos was directly mentioned in only one place in the game (Maestro's bio) and was called SPIDER. - Supergroup bases (and prestige) didn't exist. - Some Rikti didn't wear clothes. - The Council was new. (The Fifth Column had been written out of the game at the beginning of i3.) - All player character weapons and powers looked the same. - There were no friendly combat NPC's in missions. (This may be viewed as a positive if you're thinking of Fusionette or Lady Jane.) - Enemy spawns of mixed factions couldn't fight each other (except in the Council/5th Column "war" that began i3). The most they could do was the "punch each other" emote. (Hostile factions were added in i5, in Croatoa.) - Moving to i4, once the Global Defense Reduction (yes, they actually called it that) was announced, everyone was certain the game would be either instantly emptied or become unplayably difficult. - Geko, rather than Castle, ran the devs' Powers team. Geko did not post on the forums, read PM's, or consider player opinions as anything more than the ravings of depraved ape-creatures. - In fact, I believe Positron, Geko, Archon Voss, and Jack "Statesman" Emmert were the only devs with rednames on the fora at the time. - Some people still liked Statesman and would praise his ideas. - Fly gave you a large Accuracy debuff. Okay, that's all for now. |
I am taking my sig to MWO and MWT. Let them wonder what it means.
Lets see, in my day...
- Katana was a carbon copy of Broadsword.
- You couldn't skip the tutorial.
- when the first couple of people on the server hit 14 and could fly we all stopped and watched in awe.
- Debt was a SERIOUS problem that you tried like hell to avoid.
- There was none of this combining of inspirations crap.
- There WAS no pocket D, and most of the RP'ing happened out in the open or in the park in southern Galaxy.
- You couldn't be a real villain, but there were SG's made up of villain wannabes
- There was no Hollows. Just Kings or Perez.
- Street sweeping in Boomtown was a great way to get from lvl 11 to lvl 14 for your travel power.
- We still thought Statesman was a pretty OK guy.
- And Regen scrappers were GODS.
Many fine memories noted, but let me single out this one:
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Or more. |
Originally Posted by Olantern
In my early days (late i3),
- There was no "cooperative mission" completion. If you had the same mission as someone else on the team, the team did it twice.. |
As a newb in the late i3 era, Frostfire was the first really tough villain I encountered, since most of my early teaming experience took place in the Hollows. And Frostfire was TOUGH, what with a Jack Frost and Fire Imps, etc.
So the team just finished the last room with Frostfire, which was an epic battle with some team member casualties. I watched Frosty fade from view and departed. The leader put up the next mission: "Arrest Frostfire."
Dang, that guy made bail faster than anyone I have ever seen.
"How do you know you are on the side of good?" a Paragon citizen asked him. "How can we even know what is 'good'?"
"The Most High has spoken, even with His own blood," Melancton replied. "Surely we know."
Contact -"Hello new hero, I have a jewel thief I'd like you to catch"
Hero - "Love to. Where're they holed up?"
Contact - "Okay, see that giant pit of white hot death over there?"
Hero - "Yeah?"
Contact - "They're on the other side of it. have fun! Oh, and when you get back I need you to take out some Circle of Thorns. They're in the middle of the tree maze in Perez"
Hero - "You're Satan, aren't you?"
Also, the complaints I've seen about Praetoria having too much running to contacts is hilarious. I remember having to run Indigo to Crimson and back, before Founder's Falls had a tram station. and every mission you got was in a different zone from the one you were in.
Indigo "Hey, go to Atlas real quick!"
Hero "How about no?"
Lusca was a real treat to behold. Many a hero would come to fight her.
You couldn't stay in Atlas Park and lvl to 50 without leaving the zone.
When you wanted to trade something, you actually had to trade with the person you wanted to trade with. None of that WW stuff.
During the 1st WL invasion, almost every hero had TP friend to battle him.
There was no redside.
A tank could round up all the foes in Perez Park by taunting them and bringing them over the wall into a unsuspecting group of heroes.
Street Sweeping in Perez Park was required.
People would ask if you knew were the rave was.
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We all know they still are |
Originally Posted by NightErrant
And Tyrant and Dominatrix were... *cough*.
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@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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<_< *cough*|
Originally Posted by Golden Girl
We all know they still are
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...Oh! Back in my day, you had to GRIND to level 50 to play a Spider. And then when you finally got it, you realized getting it up to level 20 so it could be a Crab was a lot of work and you really didn't have a concept to begin with so you deleted it...
*sigh* I need to roll a bane...
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And let's not forget that to melee anybody trying to run away, you had to run PAST them and punch them from in front, like a man!|
Originally Posted by corridor
Lets see, in my day...
- Katana was a carbon copy of Broadsword. - You couldn't skip the tutorial. - when the first couple of people on the server hit 14 and could fly we all stopped and watched in awe. - Debt was a SERIOUS problem that you tried like hell to avoid. - There was none of this combining of inspirations crap. - There WAS no pocket D, and most of the RP'ing happened out in the open or in the park in southern Galaxy. - You couldn't be a real villain, but there were SG's made up of villain wannabes - There was no Hollows. Just Kings or Perez. - Street sweeping in Boomtown was a great way to get from lvl 11 to lvl 14 for your travel power. - We still thought Statesman was a pretty OK guy. - And Regen scrappers were GODS. |
And we had a Grammar Patrol on Triumph, and they taught the kids how to type properly!
And nobody had capes! Nobody! Our bare backs were cold and there wasn't even so much as a fiery aura to warm us!
And if you wanted to get the most out of your attacks, it was 1 Accuracy and 5 Damage! No questions!
Dunno if these have been covered but there are two I remember from beta.
Glowing items didn't make a sound. You had to check every corner of a map and hope you didn't miss them.
There was no drop down menu when you went to a train. If it said "King's Row" on the digital display that's where you were going. You had to read the map at the front to know how many stops you had. If you missed your stop, you had to run around a second time. For me, I would fall into the habit of running around and catching the train I'd miss my stop. "Sorry guys, I went too far, be there ASAP!"
The promise that all ATs could solo. Now we get messages on splash screens telling us some ATs are more suitable for solo play than others.
I miss herding Perez Park with my Rad/Rad defender. Round a corner yelling run and then see one person shoot the first mob, then drown in a wave of Hellions and Skulls.
Then when Issue 5 came out, it was because Jack, the Statesman, failed repeatedly at playing Mario on a plane. So they capped all of us to try to 'encourage' team play.
I just stumbled across this thread through a friend who mentioned it when we were talking about the "old days" of CoH. (so that's why the REALLY late respond 
)
The old days actually sound good!
I only started in March 2008. I think CoV was just introduced.
But even I find the old days better. To actually put some effort in earning stuff is so way more rewarding.
I was PROUD to have earned the PB and WS when I finally got one of my chars to lvl 50!
I was proud for being able to give my chars a cape once they'd reached lvl 20 (for the cape mission)
And I will be proud when he has completed the Vanguard Suit earning the Merits in Rikti fights BEFORE they will give me the suit for paying for the game through Feb till April.
*sighs sadly*
CoH becomes more and more about "earning XP as fast as you can" instead of enjoying the story behind it, just like WoW. Many (new) players don't seem to want to actually play anymore...but just earn XP so they can lvl to the highest lvl as fast as they can so they can kick some fellow **** in the PVP zones or the Arena or where ever they are aloud to do that.
(I don't know, I don't PVP ).
I try to teach the young newbies about the game itself, the stories, the happenings the funnies and saddies, the opportuneties.... but they are just not interested. No, must move quickly from mission to mission to gain XP.
Luckily the game is still fun to me. As it still has it's upsides too.
Hell I'm a Superjump addict! I have boosted Leaping on one of my chars so far up that he can jump across half Atlas Park in one jump! It's so awesome! 
Anyways...
*waves*
DeeDee
CoH Fan-Art Sale still several slots open!
Read my in-game stories and check out my DeviantART page.
- coXso - It was a memorable time filled with art!
Read my in-game stories and check out my DeviantART page.
- coXso - It was a memorable time filled with art!
Illusion/Rad was a GOD. With 3 phantasms, sometimes 4, and overlappeing Phantom Army, there was NOTHING that could stand in my way. Perma Hasten, Perma AM...
I was sssooo overpowered.
I still miss it.
No one pays attention to me, cause I listen to the voices in my head.
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This was never the case. The paper manual which shipped with the game describes Scrappers as being able to fight alone, Blasters as being able to fight alone if you were REALLY careful, and Defenders, Controllers and Tankers as ATs you should team with. Furthermore, bosses were described as huge threats that should require an entire team, but you could maybe, possibly think about taking on by yourself if you were really awesome.|
Originally Posted by Freebooter
The promise that all ATs could solo. Now we get messages on splash screens telling us some ATs are more suitable for solo play than others.
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That's not exactly how things turned out.
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Back in my day, we had City of Blasters because of the bugged value of Smoke Grenade which debuffed enemy to-hit by 50% instead of 5%, and was stackable with itself.
Back in the day, we had no provision for stacking positional and typed defence, such that SR Scrappers had precisely no use for Forcefields bubbles.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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Back in the day, an Archery/Devices blaster was seen as having a poor primary and a good secondary.
Nobody mentioned the total lack of real numbers yet? If you took a power because it promised "moderate damage, medium recharge" it could mean anything and the only way to find out was to try it.
And the Terra Volta reactor trial was dang hard. The coolant belts glowies didn't work right, and if you were overwhelmed, no Shivans or HVAS would come to the rescue. I had a defender that needed the respec, so I did the first Terra Volta trial 24 times in a row, all failures, before deleting that character and starting it over because it was less painful to just level it again.
www.SaveCOH.com: Calls to Action and Events Calendar
This is what 3700 heroes in a single zone looks like.
Thanks to @EnsonsDeath for the GVE code that made me VIP again!
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This is the one I think back on as funny, especially the COULD NOT CHANGE part. There was no Icon. If you were wearing gloves and you decided that you wanted bare hands on your level 40 (there was no level 50), you literally had to reroll your character and start over.|
Originally Posted by DumpleBerry
You only had ONE costume that you COULD NOT CHANGE. There were NO CAPES. It was possible to have SO MUCH DEBT that you were better off deleting characters than working it off.
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Also, there was no Exit button on your compass after finishing a mission. The "I want to leave" button was that little "i" icon, which changed functions from showing you the mission description to exiting the mission with no visual indication of doing so. I was around level 15 or so, having played for probably three weeks, before noticing that after a mission, people on my team were disappearing off the map instead of running back to the entrance door. "Hey, how are you guys doing that!?"
We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.
(If you love this game as much as I do, please read that post.)
Back in my day a tank with provoke, and teleport was considered the only effective tank build.
NeoSaturn-L50 Kat/Regen Scrapper
Paragon Family Swift
NeoSaturn's Deviations