War Nostalgia: What the new players are missing

[Shattered Rift]

We got onto a side-tangent in the current plot thread, so I'm going to copy a quote here (hope you don't mind, Rylix).

Shattered Rift Wrote:

rylix Wrote:I'd like to see my first war, just to know what it's like. All the long time battledomers speak of it as if its heaven for battlers

I cracked my codes though. Hopefully that will increase my chances of a decent prize? All the plots i've done had nothing special

Despite all the hype, there's a lot of complaining during wars (a lot of the wars also had significant problems: limited opponents and ranks, to name the two big ones). Otherwise, though, they're the pinnacle of One Player battling. They're the time when pushing yourself to the absolute and past matters. Sure, you're not going to walk away with a good prize, but you'll have that war story to tell the grandn00bs.

The other thing worth noting was that everyone on the site got in on wars. Sure, a lot of newbies are sad (and apparently complaining nowadays) that they didn't do well, but it inspires several of them to become BDers. IDB might not look it now, but there was a time when if you were gone for a couple of days the forums would have a whole new set of threads when you got back. That's how big the Battledome was, and wars were a huge part of it.

To expand on this a little bit further (since I was trying not to stray too off-topic at the time I made that post), I was in the group that joined during the first Meridell War. My first account got frozen, and I didn't feel I had enough time to train up my Pet (not knowing about IDB, and not knowing I could at least get a win or two in). I did take one shot against the Spectre (I wish I still had that screenie), and I'm one of the few (if not the only) people(/person) to have the Darigan Redeemed avatar without having the Darkling avatar.

More importantly, though, I remember what happened after the Spectre was defeated: Majal_Kita was advertised in the News as the Pet that defeated the Spectre. Gawking at Majal inspired me to become a battler.

[Ritcherd]

i remember the first meridell war... and how aweful i was.... struggling to beat more than five draconacks... using dual immense rubber axe of doom's.... hahaha saving up 60k for a snowball slingshot... getting excited watching for the news for new challengers that i would never beat hahahaha


... boy how the times have changed

[Kenjiro]

Since I started Neopets, one of my goals was to get a strong pet with high stats (an RPG-er to the core ). But the first plot I encountered was Altador, so I've never had a real war before, and apart from DoN (which goes quite slow), there really isn't much to do in the Battledome.

The ToW and Isle plots at least offered something to do, but reading about all the old things that happened on the site, I really wish there could be something similar like a war again, even if it's just once..

[+Star Dust]

Mmmmm memory lane

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. I remember the meridell war and I had tons of fun even tho my little pet was tiny ^^

It was probably posting on IDB forums that really got me into bding back in the day. Those really active days were the post...of course now all my posts from back in the day are gone *tear*

[333pet]

My first plot was Battle for Meridell II.
My set back then was something like:
Immense Rubber Axe Of Doom
Lost Desert Dagger
Leaf Shield
Illusens Earth Potion
Slime Potion

Anyway I managed to get 30 points

[Shattered Rift]

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.


I remember Meridell II, since it was the first war I "really" participated in. I remember using dual-Leaf Shields against the Spyders to eke out a few more wins (in an era of 6-iconers, a 13-icon shield that soaks up at least 8 icons was a better strategy than I'd realize until years later). I was also one of the lucky ones who was online every (or almost every) time the Skeiths and Eyries were released. However, several battlers got shafted by their time-zones and lack of online time.

Then we had Hannah and the Ice Caves, which was the only "perfect" war. TNT added poisoning around that time, which made the medicinal stuffs skyrocket in value. Sadly, I don't remember a whole lot about the actual battling. I think we were allowed to fight against both sides' opponents (were there two sides?), and I know I did that a little bit.

And last we Curse of Maraqua. Me and everyone else in Rank 2 got shafted, but fortunately we were allowed to fight against every opponent that our side was fighting, even though you didn't get points for the lower or higher ranks. I didn't do much of that, but it helped to make the war not completely suck at the time.

[raziel_03]

I played both meridell wars... and i've tried to play on all (plots and wars).
It happened that almost always when something began i had exams, an important paper deadline or even i was offline but i managed to get points.

I didn't max out because of that but i liked to try bigger enemies... once i won and that made made day.
Now i have the necessary to battle more... i saw it during ToW plot.

[graphitesmoothie]

Heh, I started seriously playing neo / BD'ing midway through the second Meridell war. I only got like...70 points or something. Then that account got frozen.

Then I made a new one, and managed to catch HatIC when my account was about 4 months old. I ended up getting 2000 points that war (with an 85 boost pet). I had an interesting trick to allow myself to fight the wave 1 challengers until I was nearly maxed. (I don't think I was fully maxed, I probably wanted a nice number like 2000.) It involved using my spare account, sticky-handing a poison dart, using it on my main pet, and using a cheaper cure. A lot of times.

And that was the only war I was super enthusiastic about. CoM was okay (I played that one with a rank 1 pet) and the rest I haven't bothered with.

[Cranberry]

I was around for the Tyrannian war, but I didn't participate -- all I cared about back then was painting my lupe and buying him a noil petpet (which he still has to this day, although he's now a gelert). I battled a bit in the first Meridell war. I think I probably had the 35 or 55 boost then, and not very good weapons. I remember wishing for a Zaptwig and a Fire and Ice Blade because they looked so cool (and they were decent way back then!). Somehow I ended up with 213 points. Even though I didn't get to battle a lot, I definitely got a taste for it and wanted to do better next time!

I battled a bit more in the second Meridell war, which happened during college, when I was in Toronto for a month, living with a friend's mom and interning at a magazine. I'd go back to her house after a long day of work (and hanging out and shopping or seeing movies with my other friends in the city, then taking the 45-minute subway ride back to North York), and I'd battle on the crappy dial-up (I was used to the university's T1, so that was not fun) until I had to force myself to go to bed so I could make it to the magazine the next day! I got 375 points because I was lucky enough to catch a few waves.

I trained up more after that (85 strength, maybe?), and I did better in the Hannah and the Ice Caves war (753 points). By Curse of Maraqua time I had a Mystery Fruit Bowl that I'd won in the Mystery Island plot, plus a Honey Potion. I had the 85 boost (I think... could have been 125) and 184 HP, but I did absolutely terribly (23 points!) because I was stuck in the low end of rank two, trying to kill enemies of difficulties 100, 300, 475 and 850. Yeah, not happening.

And that's... pretty much it for wars, isn't it? How sad. I have the 250 str and def boosts now and a SoS and PCC as my main constants, and I could put on such a better show nowadays. I still wouldn't be nearly good enough for the top prizes, but wars aren't about that -- they're about pushing yourself to do your personal best and getting the coolest trophy you can manage, and they're just fun. The whole community gets involved, with everyone trading battling tips and weapon advice, and 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 miss those days.

[kagemucha]

Is this like a "life story" thread? Anyway, my FIRST FIRST war would be the Tyrannian War. Except I was too little to even know anything. I was probably only 10 years old back then, and I basically went into a battle against a pteri, and got killed.

My next war was Meridell I, where I was still a BD newbie. Got 20 points

I took a brief hiatus away from Neopets. Don't remember for what game. Maybe Diablo II . When I returned, Meridell II JUST ended, and I just joined PPT/IDB. So didn't get any battle in for the last "great" war.

HATIC war was okay. I remember everyone going crazy about the 1st wave poisoner CoM sucked cause I made Rank 2 by ~10 points, so I barely got any fights in. Then Kagemucha got frozen, and lost everything.

Came back to ToW, but had a crappy pet so didn't even get the "WIN LIMIT!" on all challengers.

Thats basically my neopets life. Not too much

Quote:waiting for someone to leave because it's exceeded the maximum number of users online! I miss those days.

lol

[rylix]

Wow. No i don't mind shattered

My account is old enough to have done HatIC and CoM but for some reason i wasn't playing neo when those plots were on. I remember being on holiday during one of them and yeah.

I got into 2-p battling and shifted to 1-p from there (you won't beleive the amount of noobinators these days, be it through BD chat or quickfight).

I'm much more active now then i've bin in the past, that's why i'm hoping there will be another for me to actually try in. My pet is an 85-booster, so i know i won't get far, but i'll get something and that's important