Goofy things you thought when you were new to the game.

This being my first MMO (sound familiar?)

I had joined up and was doing table top playing as well.
Our Gm was known for making sure you hid your identities and such.

SO.. in the costume creator (wayy back then)...
I chose a full mask cause... you know.. I didn't want the villains in the game to know who the secret ID for the character would be.

Little did I know hahaha.

TO this day.. I still have that costume slot saved to remind me.
And to this day.. I rarely ever place a full mask on my characters.

Never did the train exit thing, I always got lucky but did hear about it in broadcast a few times.

First time ever with Hover, I remember heading straight up and totally geeking out... then.. trying to catch and land on the blimp. Strategically heading it off by coming at it from different angles and never being able to land on it. Getting frustrated that I couldn't (Not knowing that you can not ever land on it).

Choosing SCIENCE as my origin on my 1st and main character. And feeling like I was some kind of idiot as others told me how they were able to go through missions without dying so much.
That is.. till they teamed with me and saw my missions haha.
BTW... never chose Science again after that.

Running around helping NPC's cause.. Well I thought that is what you had to do or.. you would get hammered by something in the game.

Stuff like that.

I actually believed someone who thought Shadowhunter's regen was cut if you got him in the water.


I also did not understand what kill-stealing was. >_>


And my number one most memorable moment was getting hover and going to Founder's Falls. "Oh, BUILDINGS! PEOPLE! How pret-*snipe*" The fall was long.

The bio thing reminds me:

I come from a mostly-RP background. All my friends are RPers. So I started playing CoH, and I talked to people, and one of the people I met early on was @Twoflower.

So.

I spent a month, maybe two, thinking that people looking for "AE teams" were getting groups together to RP through the cool player-written story content. I didn't go because I'm mostly shy and introverted, and don't like to hang out with strangers usually.

... Well, for "shy and introverted" read "autistic". Not really thread-related, but I'd point out that CoH has done a ton to help me be more comfortable trying to interact with strangers, thanks to good experiences.

I tried getting to a different zone by trying to enter the train entrance in the war walls O.o

Hmm cannot remember many goofs. Since they where around 1 year of Coh. Had a trial account on the NA server and left to play a sci-fi mmo instead. So most of my goofs probably went there instead

I probably had the wrong entrance to the trainstation goof.
I know I had the Exit mission goof and wondered how on earth did people get out so quickly. Dang their are fast runners!

In the sci fi game (could have happened here too) I was scared trying to walk past several purple coloured critters. I had fought similar ones. (did not occur to me that these where friendly )

Used Fire Rain like crazy on my fire/ice blaster, spreading chaos and yes.. in team. (She later became my main on EU (pure fire) and I avoided that mistake)

Using Hover to travel across the Hollows - Check. Man that was SLOW!
Used to do the Hollows on my first chars, never heading to Kings until much later. (Now i finish kings then do the hollows... to get the contacts so my chars can host the hollows trial)

I thought Pocket D was a cool place. I was very, very naive back then.

COH is my first MMO as well. Shortly after I got my first character to level 20, I went to Independence Port, but had to log out pretty much right away. The next time I logged in, there was a guy (I thought another player) in some kind of military outfit standing right next to me. I stood there checking out his costume, when he started shooting at me! Hey!

My introduction to the 5th Column!

Clicking the Pocket D Transporter icon for the very first time and wondering what exactly it did. Then I couldn't find the exit from the Tiki Lounge for ages and panicked thinking I was going to be stuck in there forever. Then trying to figure out what exit to take (Villain side) and not knowing which was a low level zone or how to get back to Mercy and accidentally leaving through the St Martial door. It took me hours to finally manage to get to the ferry, past all the wailers, and choose another zone. I ended up exploring a fair chunk of Cap au Diable on my way back to Mercy lol.

I started around I5 right before ED struck. Another noob MMO player I found I had a lot to learn.

Did the train thing where I stood there for 5 minutes wondering why the doors weren't opening.

I picked Flurry from the Super Speed pool. It's a limited pick power so it has to be better than your primary powers, right???

I six slotted everything with damage. More damage = better obviously. Took me a bit to understand that it doesn't matter how much damage you can do if you can't hit. ED came along shortly thereafter about the time I found the forums and realized how much I didn't know.

I think my biggest blunder was finding out that I could change my costume on my first character at level 8. I asked where the tailors were and found out that there was one way north in Steel, one in IP, and one in Founders Falls. There was no way I could make it to the one in Steel so I ran across KR to the entrance to IP and make my way slowly to the tailor following a team that was street sweeping. It took me forever to make my way back out of the zone since there was no one to clean out those level 20+ bad guys who would gank me at the drop of a hat. Oh yeah, full debt bar and then some by the time I made it out of IP.

When I was in the tutorial, I didn't realize that you had to hit the "enter" key to type. When someone approached me to tell me I had a nice costume, I tried to say "thank you. I like your costume, too!" only, my target window, chat and nav disappeared, I was auto running, and jumping up and down like an idiot. Thankfully, I was near a wall, so I didn't run too far away. She figured out what happened, and told me to hit "enter" to type. I could see her chat bubble, but the chat window disappeared.

She started saying something else, but I turned away, and didn't see all of it in the bubble, so I asked her to repeat it. She did, and I didn't catch it all again. So I said "one more time, please?" She asked why I didn't just read it in the chat window. I told her I didn't have one. She explained to hit "C".


My first team consisted of two other members. I was level 2, and they were level 5 (!!). I told them I was too low for them, and one invited me to be her sidekick. I told her that I was interested in being a superhero, not a sidekick, and that I didn't want to have to only team with her, as fun as it was. She explained that it would make me level 4, and it was just a term, I wasn't her actual sidekick.


At the end of that play session, I was going to go to bed. I thanked them for the team and the pointers, and told them I had fun. One told me I could join them any time, and to look them up in the "team" window. The next day, I opened the team window, and saw "search comment". I figured that was where I entered their names. A day or two later, I got a tell from them saying "Uh, why is my name your search comment?" I said, "I was looking for you!" They explained I was doing it wrong.


A few days after I started, the person who gave me the tips in the tutorial, I guess, noticed me in her global friends list. She sent a tell asking how I was liking the game. I asked how she could tell I was on, if I couldn't see her (avatar) around. She explained how to open my global friends list. I did so, saw her name, and saw "Shard: Freedom". I thought there was a zone called that, so I asked how to get to Freedom (I was on Champion at the time). She said "You select it". I asked where I select it from, and she said "the main menu". I saw "Menu" in the upper right of my screen, but couldn't find it. So I ran to the train station, and didn't see a "Freedom" listed. I asked in broadcast how to get to Freedom, and someone responded "You don't want to go there". I asked if I was too low for it. People laughed, but didn't respond. So I sent my global friend a tell, asking for clarification. She replied, "Uh. It's a server. Select it from where you chose Champion". So I logged out, selected Freedom, saw that Banana McJammyPants didn't exist there. I logged back into Champ, and said, "I don't think I can go there. Banana McJammyPants isn't listed".

I am sure that person smashed her head on her desk, dealing with me.

Thank you, Champion.

A few of my early misconceptions:

- If you got hit by a car or truck you'd take damage. I also thought you had to avoid water until your character could pick up a "swimming" power.

- Before I ever tried the game I thought you HAD to team to play. I would probably be at least a six year vet by now if I'd realized that you could play and enjoy the game solo. I'm normally pretty introverted, so I didn't want to join a game I knew nothing about and be forced to play with strangers would would probably be way better than me.

- Once I joined the game, I thought you had to know what you were doing before you should join a team. I declined all team invites for weeks reasoning that if I joined a team not knowing what I was doing, everyone would die.

- You couldn't slot more than one enhancement of any type in a power. I wasted a lot of inf buying eight or ten level 5 Accuracy or Damage TOs and stacking them in a power to get all my enhancements to turn green again.

- I thought the base teleporters were some kind of energy fountains and they would kill you if you touched them.

And two specific instances:

On my first CoV character, I got the "Take Out the Traitor" mission Kalinda gives all of her new players. I ran to the tug boat, clicked on the door, and ended up back on the deck of the tug boat. So I clicked the door again, and... I was back on the deck of the tug boat. I did this three or four times before I ran back to Kalinda and asked another player to help me. When we got into the mission I noticed that he was having the same problem... until he ran up the pier and started fighting the Longbow. D'oh!


About 2 weeks into the game, I got a random SG invite while on a character in Mercy Island. I figured "what the heck," and joined the VG. The next time I died, I got the pop-up to "Go to Hospital" or "Go to Base" and I clicked on "Base." I wound up in the VG base and I had no idea how to get out - there were no doors! I was too embarrased to ask so I just kept running around looking for doors and clicking on things. I finally found a the teleporters, and picked one, which dumped me, a level 3 character IIRC, in... Sharkhead. I learned a lot about aggro radius that day as I tried to sneak to the ferry. I finally got there only to find out that it wouldn't take me back to Mercy Island. I was so frustrated at that point that I just deleted the character and made a new one.


ETA: When I finally started teaming, I kept seeing people type "gratz." I figured that it was some kind of MMO shorthand for "thanks," like from the Italian word "gratzie." I didn't chat much during missions, but one time I died and a teammate came back and rezzed me to which I typed "Gratz!" They replied, "For what?" I said, "For resurrecting me." To which they replied, "It wasn't that hard. lol"

For ages I thought the only way to get to The Hollows was through skyway.
Imagine my surprise when I found an Atlas entrance and all those deaths could have been avoided.

My namesake is a Mind/Bubbles.

When I read allowed enhancements, I thought you HAD to have one of each kind so I had one Accuracy, one Range, one Hold, one Damage, one Endurance Mod...I never killed anything, I was so frustrated...until a friend with an account saw my toon, laughed at me and helped me out with it.

Heh, nothing immediately comes to mind about CoH itself, but...

CoH was the first MMO I played. Imagine my frustration when I subscribe to another and seem to be getting no rewards for the enemies I defeat, beyond the obligatory xp. Didn't take long to figure out, but was still an amusing /facepalm when I learned how to LOOT bodies.

When I was new to the game, I tried to enter Trains from the exit side. <_<;;

My first character was a Regen scrapper, and I skipped Quick Recovery because I though Endurance wasn't as important as hitpoints and healing (plus, I thought we got more endurance as we leveled up).

In the early days, lowbies would run around Kings Row searching for Circle of Thorns, but those guys almost only spawned on rooftops. However, you could see their green glow from the street, so once spotted, you made your way up the building (via Combat Jumping window ledges, or slowly Hovering) to fight them... and I discovered that a very bright glow was being caused by something called a Tree of Life... and then I met the Devouring Earth for the first time... >_<

Warehouse mission with random NPC's running around...kept trying to talk to them.

First off, I am yet another Waiting For The Train Club member. With that out of the way...

CoH is the only MMO I have ever played. I knew folks, however, who played Ultima Online, and heard about how players were pickpocketed and otherwise stolen from. So on my second day or so, I was ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIED when a "Someone wants to trade with you" window popped up. I tried to run, but they ran after me and persisted, hollering at me to agree. I finally figured I should take a chance and agree. I utterly panicked when the trading window opened up. I had no idea what they were trying to do. Alas for the good-hearted hero trying to show this Newbie some kindness! Eventually I got it right. As a result, I explain to Newbies how all that works when I am laying some funds on them.

And about a week into my career, I was standing in Atlas when BING! a lvl 44 Range SO popped into my tray. I looked at it. Man, that did a LOT of enhancement, especially compared to my pitiful Training enhancements. And Lvl 44s had to be REALLY expensive. My unknown benefactor had really given me something that would be very useful!

So I held on to it.

For 15 levels.

And then I figured out that I was supposed to have SOLD it and used the funds to bankroll my starving hero.

As a result, I always give lowbies pure Inf. (There was no way I could have gotten to an Atlas store alive to sell my treasure back in the day, even if I HAD figured it out.)

There were many other silly things, and my thanks to those that took the time to 'splain things to me Back in the Day.