War Nostalgia: What the new players are missing

[chicken]

Lets see... my first war was Meridell 1. I had just rejoined again, because my first account had been frozen after only 40 days (still have no idea why), and unfortunatly I never even managed even a single win... I didn't know anything about IDB or anything like that, so I was using pretty bad weapons. I think I remember using Trumpet of Blasting or something like that which only dealt 2 icons. I was on Darigan's side, and I probably could have scored a win or if I had switched sides to Meridell since the Drackonack was easier than the Quiggle.

Back then nobody correctly understood how boss fights worked. Everybody thought that it was essentially the boss vs. all of Neopia collectively, and that, say, a 22 HP hit would actually knock the boss's real health down 22. So it was assumed that whoever beat the boss was whoever happened to get in the last lucky hit. I remember there was alot of discussion about this on PPT, and what it would be like to get the last, etc... I remember after the war ended, I got in a lengthy argument with someone who said that featheralley should have let someone else get a boss kill since Majal Kita had already beaten the Rock Beast (along with k0jir0 and other, actually, but anyway) in the Lost Desert War.

Then there was Meridell 2. At that point I think I had the 55 boost and 85 HP. I was on during some of the limited opponent release times, I think I got fairly well maxed out on them. The Spyders were the main opponent I fought though. 196 wins if I remember correctly. Back then both the Drain Life and no power tricks were still usable, which helped me max out. I remember I also had alot of fun back then using various defensive, delaying tactics. I think I was using a BFC back then... the exact same wep I still have today, remarkably enough. The other great opponent was the lag. I got in the habit of having one page open waiting for the battle to load, while in the other I would surf around reading BD threads on either PPT or IDB (can't remember if IDB was around yet then). This was only really a problem when the limited release challengers were out though.
Right at the end I actually lost my 55 boost and had to battle a few more times to be able to get my 501st point, which I wanted because I thought the cutoff for prizes might be right at 501. I could have gone on quite a bit farther with my battling of the Spyders but for some reason I didn't really want to. My favorite battle was my 1 win against the War Machines though. It took me alot of tries. Basically, since I had 2 1-use bombs, I needed to get them frozen with below 84 HP, then bang and they would be gone. Very tough though since I was using a BFC and they had a Jade (and T-Tear I think?), and not to mention very powerful attackers. I think it probably took me at least 40 tries but finally I got it done.
I can't really remember what weps I was using that war, it was probably 6-iconers I guess. Plus probably a blue SS and a BFC, along with an IEP for my bomb of sorts.

This is getting too long, maybe I'll post more later... there's so much to remember, and that's even though I know I'm only remembering a fraction of all the interesting things that happened...

[Cranberry]

I like that this turned into a "life story" thread, kage. It's neat to hear about when people started playing and what weapons they thought were good and what kind of battling strategy (if any) they had back then!

[Shattered Rift]

Cranberry Wrote:IDB getting so much traffic that you have to keep refreshing sometimes, waiting for someone to leave because it's exceeded the maximum number of users online!

I totally forgot that we had the 100 user cap.

kagemucha Wrote:Is this like a "life story" thread?

I don't know, Kage. Were you born on Neo?

chicken Wrote:Back then nobody correctly understood how boss fights worked. Everybody thought that it was essentially the boss vs. all of Neopia collectively, and that, say, a 22 HP hit would actually knock the boss's real health down 22. So it was assumed that whoever beat the boss was whoever happened to get in the last lucky hit.

I'd totally forgotten about that old rumor. It definitely made the Boss battles more epic, though, with that scene of thousands of Pets swarming one gargantuan opponent. (And the Spectre looked so diabolical, too.)

Majal_Kita was not one of the original three to beat the Rock Beast, as I recall. If I remember right, there were at least eight Pets that defeated him. And for those who aren't aware, back then nothing was limited to one-per-Pet like it is now. So if a Pet could survive four turns (arguably more) to use eight Green Sticky Hands, then they'd have stolen all of the Rock Beast's weapons and were guaranteed a win if they were patient enough. I don't recall how much HP he had, so it could easily have been worse than fighting Punchbag Bob. There were rumors of at least one player that spent three days fighting the Rock Beast using that strategy.

On a slightly off-topic note, back in those days you'd have the occasional quick-fight with someone using multiple Hypno Helmets (H4000 Helmets, nowadays). TNT froze those players, sadly, rather than simply unequipped them. (Hypno Helmets have enough history to be worthy of their own thread, though.)

[UmbreonMatt]

Whee! Nostalgia! Before I ramble though...

Shattered Rift Wrote:

Star Dust Wrote:I think I joined neo around the end of the tyrannian war thing, so I have random points and I have no idea where they came from since I definitely didn't battle then.

They used to be given away through Random Events, or something. But that's so far in the past that I'm not even sure if that's right.

Yeah, they were given out through REs. I joined quite a while after the Lost Desert War yet I do have some points, as I recall, I clicked on the Tyrannia Army link on your lookup that takes you to the Town Hall, and at the Town Hall itself I got an RE which gave me points.

Now, my story. =3 (This one revolving around my now main and only account)

First war I took part in was the first Meridell war. Now I can safely say that I knew absolutely NOTHING about the BD. My experience prior to the war in the BD was equipping random weapons to see which hit the hardest. Which at one point was Fire Ball + Super Snow Tiger Egg. When the war arrived, I was in a phase where I was convinced that species weapons were the best in the business. So my constants were Kyrii Rocket Boots + Kyrii Power Puncher (now that I look back, these were actually kinda decent! Albeit I should've dualed the Rocket Boots, but dualing weapons never occurred to me back then ) I remember feeling so proud of them dealing 27 damage with Fierce Attack. I knew nothing except Fierce Attack, incidentally, my battles went Brain Tree Splinters + Purple Blob Potion + FA, Caustic Potion + KPP + FA, then spamming KPP + KRB + FA until either the Drackonack went down, or my pet did. Took out 31 Drackonacks that way. And naive child with a sense of honour that I was, I didn't defect to gain more points.

Discovered IDB not long after the war ended. What an eye-opener.

Was far more competent when Battle For Meridell happened. Occurred during a major low point for me since I'd just had a massive account iced for no good reason (have never come remotely close to matching what I had then) so I reverted back to my first and scraped together a set. BFM was one war in which myself and a group of friends were competing amongst ourselves in. As the only 55 booster I didn't get much competition though. I daresay I did fairly well that war, all things considered, only caught one wave of Skeith Soldiers, but pushed myself against the Eyrie Guards (Go Winged Scarab!) to make the 500 point mark. Kept losing to Kass because my friend sent me a screenie of him doing a crapload of damage using a dark reflector, and I refused to let him top me. Boots of Jumping to show for my troubles. Lol.

HATIC. Ugh. The poisoning mess right at the start of the war hurt my points quite a bit, since what I did was amass an army of Kyriis (found a 17 hp one in the Pound, fascinatingly enough) and kept swinging with them and curing them by feeding them Apple stuff to switch the disease to Itchy Scratchies. Limited once they got bloated though. So when they fixed that, I was disadvantaged by quite a bit (prior wins counted to raise the Skeletons' hp, and they were giving out 2 points instead of the original 1). Pressed on, developed an intense hatred of Rainbow Scorchstone because of those two multi-healing monstrosities, and scored two of my proudest BD achievements back to back, a win against Magic Caster Skeleton Warrior and a draw against Skeleton Warlord. And then I won a Clockwork Icy Skeleton.

Curse of Maraqua. I see quite a number of those here were shafted and stuck in low Rank 2. I ended up high Rank 1. *runs from shower of sharp pointy objects* When my sister got online and saw the rank system, I had my fingers crossed when I went to log in. Phew. *dodges another shower of objects* I enjoyed CoM, I really did, though it doesn't take a genius to see how it was ruined for many of the others. If I had been put in Rank 2, I would've ended up with 12 points. As it was I was among the top Maraquans overall. Commander Blade + Scarab Ring squeezed out a remarkable number of wins against the scouts, though that annoying poisoner of a Kyrii never allowed me to max out. Sore topic for many though, so I'll zip up now.

And that was that. And will be all there will ever be, by the looks of it...

[Sinhab]

I participated in all but one war (I believe the Lost Desert), and the best thing about the wars was the progress I made. Everybody was new to the Tyrannian war, so only a select few had decent pets and knowledge of weapons. It was then when I started to build my set and build my stats and prepare for war. I got a crappy shield... crappy prize. What was the point? The bragging rights.
The shield.
As each war passed, my shields would improve and this would show the progress that not only I made, but my pet made as well. As soon as the system changed, the visual progress from the original point system faded and training ultimately became pointless. The plots now focus on brain teasers, to all which have plot guides that just tell everyone how to complete a step. Where to go, what to do, and sometimes even how to solve a problem without even looking at the question. Random, pointless clicking.
We need wars again. This is the Sloth plot. I expect more out of this plot than the past few. Although there is the chance that there is a cap limit on wins, or maybe a chance that no more waves will come, I am still glad that they decided to bring at least a miniwar upon us.

[gemma58]

*sniff the cordite* blow away the cobwebs* ahhh nostalgia*

I was an utter n00b when Tyrannian War started around March 2001. Everyone was talking war and how to stop the enemy but I knew NOTHING about the Battledome!!
Got caught up in all the drama and purchased my first weapons: a sparkshooter (yep just ONE weapon) and when I got absolutely smashed (lol) I got what I thought was good upgrade: a Grand Lightning Beam and got smashed again.
Read about Improved Lightning Beam (at PPT or maybe chat), finally managed to get TWO of them and I got my one and only win for the Tyrannian War before the War Boss (Monoceraptor) was beaten! For that lowly win, I got the magnificient (at the time) sum of 10,000np and a food item I think. I was hooked!

Needless to say, it was only through PPT and later IDB, I got to know a little bit more about battling.
I loved the excitement generated and the camaraderie of the forums was awesome, everyone trying to help each other to go beyond what they thought was their best.
The next plot involving battling was Brucey B and the Lucky Coin with the Rock Beast as the War Boss.
Newer weapons and strategy left me in the starting gate with nothing to show for this plot.
After that I was determined to do better in future war plots and managed to improve slightly over time:
Meridell Journeyman (203 points Meridell); Defender (739 points Battle for Meridell) Blackguard (1126 points Hannah and the Ice Caves); until the aptly maligned Curse of Maraqua II Sailor (28 points) Warrior (Rank 2). This kinda left me a bit flat and disappointed with battling. It was only through forum people that my interest in battling was rekindled.
All the other mini-war Plots LDP/Altador/ToW/ JttLI I managed to get as many as possible points, sometimes doing ok, others are better left to the dust of antiquity lol. Whatever the plot mini or all out war, it's great to see everyone encouraging each other to do their best no matter what level of battling!
Now let's get back to blasting those challengers

[Steelersfan1243]

Lets see.....
The first plot I was ever there was for was Altador Cup.......if thats even a plot
Never have I participated in a war or a real plot, but I really want to participate in a war
I only play during school breaks so its kind of hard to do them
I wish really bad that I was there for the Meridell Wars, I bleive those were the golden years of neopets
If my pet were any stronger I would enjoy the BD even more

[Shattered Rift]

Steelersfan1243 Wrote:Lets see.....
The first plot I was ever there was for was Altador Cup.......if thats even a plot

I'm pretty sure TNT referred to it as a mini-plot. (And suckered us all into doing it because the LDP Plot had given away RotLs like candy, and all of us were hoping for another weapon of that caliber.)

It fits better here than anywhere else: who defeated Kanrik and The Bringer in HatIC? And who beat Captain Scarblade and King Kelpbeard in CoM?

[chicken]

I think perhaps the HATIC boss was beaten by Garret_Jax... I'm pretty sure there was a boss in some war that he beat.

[Shattered Rift]

He beat Lord Kass in Meridell II. Neither he, Feather, or Hrobi defeated the bosses from HatIC/CoM.

[mermoid]

oh my, I remember, I fought on the first merridel war, and I beat a drackonack, but for some reason, I wasn't recognized.
Didn't even get a darned avatar