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One year playing VO

Nov 07, 2005 jexkerome link
Not sure if this goes here, but this November 5th is my first anniversary in this great game.

When I got on I knew it had gone gold recently, but until now I didn't know how recently; getting in late on the action (be it fads, games, or other stuff) seems to be a curse of mine, so it's kinda pleasant to know I got into the game almost as soon as it went P2P.

High points I remember from this year are:

The introduction of the mining system, when everyone entered into the unofficial contest to see who could heat up a roid the highest. I also remember ViciousNanite boasting about being the only person who knows the location of Dau's lone Pentric roid. It might be he was just mouthing off, or it could be that Dau has plenty of pentric, but either way so far I have yet to find a single pentric roid there.

The days of Serco CTC control (during my time slot anyway) spring to mind, too, with yodaofborg, CrippledPidgeon and mr_spuck leading the charts and blasting to bits any poor Itani that got in their way. I remember those few Itani players (most were not into CTC) complaining constantly on the unfairness of it until the Serco got sick of the whining and stopped playing altogether.

Also amusing was the introduction of the l-mines, with their initial sector crashing bug. ViciousNanite (again) was berating people on 100 not to use them (without saying why) until CP got tired of it and leaked the info; dunno if anyone actually went around crashing sectors on purpose after that, like VN thought they would.

Another high point was the introduction of the capships, with everyone and their brother going over to Sercoland to ogle at the Nemesis. People went there only to find tons of other people already in the sector and suffer from framerate issues as a result. People also loved to prod, poke and generally try to inconvenience the darn thing, and got blasted as a result. Back in those days, the capship was armed with super gatlers instead of mining beams o' doom, and so avoiding its fire was quite easy. It was also a lot less resilient.

The introduction of the Behemoth was a much quieter affair; by the time I finally got my chance to log on and fly one everyone had already tested, raced, kitted out, blown up and tried in combat enough of them to make their minds about it. I like this uber-trading ship, even with the nerfing it got shortly after.

I remember, too, people stocking up on ships and weapons whenever upcoming tweaks were announced. I hear some people still have old versions of some ships, most notably Cents, around, and they take care of them as if they were original Babe Ruth Rookie trading cards, or something. For the most part, though, stocking up didn't work.

The introduction of the racetracks was another community-gathering event, as everyone began to test them out. The Maze in particular was a hotspot, since getting out is still no bargain (I've yet to succeed at this on my own), and the claustrophobic interior makes for amusing firefights. Nowadays, it feels like just Racer keeps any fondness for them, and is becoming quite annoying in his fanatism.

The opening of PvPland (also know as the test server) to the public, a more recent thing, I also remember fondly, as I was there when we filled the Stronghold sector with bots until it crashed. I also remember finding Queens inside a racetrack sector and other oddities of that first run of the New Hive. Leviathans didn't have healing bots then, and they had beam weapons (like the current capships) instead of the balls of plasma they shoot nowadays.

In a more personal level, I remember yoda was Joyce's first PK. He agreed to fight her somewhere on Azek, and since he was fiddling with bots he didn't have a proper PvP setup on his ship; nevertheless he showed up like that and it was a surprise to see him go down to Joyce's guns. Strangely enough, I can't recall her setup, though I don't think she was flying the EasyKill(TM) Hornet that's become her trademark fighting vessel. Another personal high-point was when Joyce rallied the Serco and UIT to give the Serco their only victory to date in Jestatis Bess' capship battles. That one was extra fun when Jes actually called Joyce out for a duel, and I turned it into a battle of stamina by demanding Hornets with energy only. Joyce won, but by the end my left hand was getting cramped.

As for my other charas, designed specifically to get a break from Joyce's personality, her brother Jayce is my greatest success, with his line "X = teh suck" giving me tons of fun. I should take him out for a spin one of these days, and annoy the new people with him. As for Jex, his time is coming, but he's quite ready for it; all he needs is capable personnel to carry out his grand designs (hint, hint).

Apart from PvP, I've met and done business with a lot of great people, some of who have moved on and others who are still ingame. Apart from yoda, Alamar in particular comes to mind for the day he took the time to give me a very thorough lesson on the perks and shortcomings of the Hornet; I don't know whether he wanted me keep them in mind as I tried to master that ship or to convince me to drop the Hornet and use something else :P
Tons of others come to mind, of course, but if I start mentioning them this sappy thread will end up thrice as long, so let's just say y'all rock.

Except for [EXPUNGED], [EXPUNGED], [EXPUNGED], and [EXPUNGED], of course.

Anyway, to kill this trip into nostalgia now, let me just say I have Great Expectations(TM) for my second year in VO, and it seems like they'll all be met.

Fight on!
Nov 07, 2005 leapfrog link
Very well said...

Seta Ralel
Nov 07, 2005 yodaofborg link
Heh, your also Jayce? lmao!
Nov 07, 2005 genka link
newb

Pretend I put a tongue-out smiley there. That way it's not as offensive to your young eyes.
Nov 07, 2005 Phaserlight link
Awww, even the resident troll showed up to wish you a happy Vendettaversary!
Nov 07, 2005 genka link
Troll?! That was a humorously condescending joke!
You people always blow everything out of proportion. :(
Nov 07, 2005 who? me? link
who was it that got [EXPUNGED]?
Nov 07, 2005 roguelazer link
Heh, that reminds me. In Divinia, I have an Itani Valkyrie whose info screen stays "Cargo: 4/2".

:P
Nov 07, 2005 DragonEmpire link
Very well said jexkerome, the last year has been a blast :P
Nov 07, 2005 smittens link
My one year was yesterday.

My memorables:

First getting into a valk, after days of botting

Forming ISP

Forming IA

One of my first kills (can't remember the first): Taking out Half-Azn after Samsoneliete took him down to 50%

Finally learning how to beat SH's spam hog

My first CtC

Jumping into Giera for the first time, and having no clue whatsoever what the crazy missile things were (Turns out they were Seekers)

Avoiding my first Apu-Tech, as told in my story which is probably 20 pages back by now. The actual experience was in fact quite similar, I was rolling to avoid the shotgun-like shots, and had about 2% when Heywood yelled "ENTER ENTER" and I jumped out

Getting 500 pks in such a crazy way

First PBAR

Getting three one-hit PBARs in the span of fifteen seconds

PBARing the guy who I made the thread about (twice)

Forming the business

Still being here and lovin it

Things I regret:

Learning that, despite his ability to royally kick my ass in fights, Solra had joined a month after me

Recruiting Lebermac

/buddy inviting Lebermac

Appointing Lebermac council

Not being able to /expel Lebermac while he was council

Almost losing to Lebermac in the MIrror tournament

Listening to Lebermac about that Pittsburgh game

All my good friends (Kepler, Heywood, Sam, Apex) leaving

Lebermac not leaving

Some more stuff involving Lebermac

---

I'm jk about the Lebermac stuff (or am I?), except for the PIttsburgh one. You idjut Leber, if I lose its your fault
Nov 07, 2005 LeberMac link
Ha ha haaaaa. I *AM* such a bitch to Smittens, I suppose.
Get me my coffee, underling! Ha!

Since we're all reminiscing...

I joined Dec 23, so It's not quite a year for me, but...

Plusses:
----------------
Joining [IA], then helping merge with [IDF] to form [Itan]
Deciding to try this PvP thing once I was extremely bored with trading & mining.
1st PK = tramshed
Giving UncleDave, Martin, Sebastian & others (you know who you are) about 500 PK's when starting this PvP thing
Learning to not expect to win vs. Proms in a Rev C after coming to my senses...
Tequila
Now it's nice to see folks like Solra, Sebastian, Spellcast, et.al online and just chat with them instead of worry about where they are and if you're gonna have to get by them in B8.

Negatives:
----------------
Never having found out who that "Goldwing" guy was who gave me my first PK death.
Never having fought folks like Spider, Icarus, or tramshed (after that first time)
Never ever beating Martin or Shape (not for lack of trying)
Not having found this game sooner (like in Alpha or Beta) so it could have sucked MORE time away from real life.
Having to listen to Smittens in guild chat ;)
Getting wormhole-killed by Spacehunter. (He ALWAYS does that to me when I'm not looking... GAH!)
Nov 07, 2005 smittens link
Well thanks a lot, Leber. You probably reminded me of my WORST negative (after "Ever knowing Lebermac")

I never EVER killed Spider. Not in a gank, not 1 on 1, never. I came SO CLOSE once, and that was pre-prom nerf (post prom-kickass-ness), but he had to log before we fought again.

COME BACK!
Nov 07, 2005 BoxCarRacer link
Spending countless hours trying to figure out how to get first place.
Realizing it was near impossible with a rev C.
Getting an IBG and 1rst place on all the tracks in one day.
*many other track related things but I gotta get a shower I'll finish it later*
Nov 08, 2005 A-Dawg link
Heh, coincidences... today is my first day joining (Nov. 8, 2004-2005)

Well, some plusses were:

Learning the ropes and being a newb for the Itani
Going to the Serco side
Creating (and still maintaning) SCAR
My first pk, a Serco, "Ooq" who was in Sedina B8 doing ctc
Playing CTC
Getting 500 pk's and counting
Mecha and BUNNY's antics in guild chat

Cons:

Well, how many precious hours of my life I've willingly spent playing this bloody addictive game.
Nov 15, 2005 Mrpizza link
What about Evhun (or did he spell it Euhun? I could never see because of the damned ingame font), Phoenix?

Don't think I ever had the pleasure of being owned by yoda. Stupid sunflares.
Nov 15, 2005 yodaofborg link
Nah, I was one of them trading or botting ninnys back then, oh, and I talked a lot, somethings never change eh? heh

Sunflares rule! but only if you cant carry jackhammers :P