I remember when...

I just passed my 5th birthday in L2 a few days ago! This game has changed so much since it first debuted, a lot of current players have no idea what this game used to be like and a lot of former players have no idea what it is now. I almost feel like I play a different game now than I did 5 years ago. I like the game I play now, but I loved the game I played then. Everything about it just feels so different..

I was thinking the other day about what this game used to be, way, way back when... (feel free to add your own!)

I remember when Cruma Tower was a HIGH level area, heck, even the swamps were dark and mysterious. Back then, only the REALLY high level people were able to go to Cruma. My clan took a trip through the swamps to see it. Not very many people were there (this was when everyone hunted SODA/Elven Fortress/Elven Ruins) and of course I died in the hallway before I even entered the first room. I don't know how that mob knew to aggro me but it did!

Later, around level 28, my clanmates told me to lie and say I was 30 so I could get in some Cruma groups.

Back then, we'd get 10% an hour at level 3x in those cruma pick-up groups - and that was the best xp in the game! (100 hours to go from level 30-40! Don't ever complain about the grind unless you've played since OB!)

Back then, no one knew anything about the game and as an Elven Oracle I was repeatedly asked for buffs like empower, haste, focus, etc.

Back then, prophet were considered "uber" - only stupid people would go Bishop!

Back then you'd always see healers sitting in shops because they could open shop, stand immediately and heal, whereas there was (is) a time delay to stand up from regular sitting. I used to use it to put funny comments in my shop - made a lot of friends that way. They later changed it so it took the same amount of time to stand from a shop as from a regular sit.

Back then, healers DID NOT flag in pvp. I remember everyone getting upset when they announced that healers would flag. No one knew what that would mean for us. I even remember my first pvp where I flagged. I held back for a second, "do I heal? I'll flag! Do I let my party members die?" before I jumped in and healed.

I remember when you had to individually load each SS and SpS (we didn't even have BSpS), there was no automatic SS use. You had to set it to your (already small) bar and press an F-key every time you used it.

Back then, all B-grade (and a lot of C-grade!) armor looked like salamander. There was a not-quite-legal patch that some people had that applied the right skins to armors (as well as adding cute hair colors to the dwarfs!) I was forever asking friends to take SS for me since I didn't have the patch!

Back then, there were no ports into hunting grounds. If you wanted to xp, you had to run there first! We'd run all the way from Gludio to Cruma just to sit and lfg. Even if they'd had teleports, we wouldn't have had the money to use them.

Back then, we ran everywhere (porting town to town was too expensive). You were always passing people on the road (asking for WW!) and there was always this nervous energy when you ran, always wondering if there'd be a PKer hiding out somewhere on the road (half the time there was).

Back then, if you wanted something crafted, you had to hand ALL of your material over to a dwarf - and hope and pray that they were legit and would not steal all your hard-earned items. Back then, a dwarf's reputation actually counted for something.

If you needed to transfer gear from one character to another, you ran both toons out in the middle of nowhere, dropped the gear, switched characters and picked it up real quick, all the while hoping no one was near.

Back then, you could drop any items upon any death - whether you were white, flagged or red, died to mobs or in pvp. You just had to pray that no one picked up your gear before you got back to it.

I could go on and on, but this post is long enough already.

The old interface + healer shops:

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn138/ragecat/Shot00065.jpg

An early siege/mass pvp near Giran (look at all the Salamander! - or Slamander as it was incorrectly named in-game!):

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn138/ragecat/Shot00053.jpg

I been playing off and on since release, I had forgotten how hard we had it honestly lol

My best memories were on Talking Island it was the social place to be and always had pvp going on :)

Also I played a cleric back in the day I remeber buffs only lasting what 2 or 5mins that was a complete nightmare in a group

hahah fun times, i remember after one of the big updates, i couldnt figure out why my weapon was glowing, i thought it was glitched hahaha!

yeah, cruma used to be serious business! i also remember dieing to mobs and dropping some full plate boots to mobs, i released and came back, they where gone... i spent forever to make them... i was heart broken... now, i crush like items for crystals.

sometimes i wish i could go back to those times :-p but only if we could all experiance it for the first time again.

Haha isn't that Salamander look because they were wearing Composite armour and they did not add the graphics yet. Like how Demon Robes looked like Knowledge robes etc. I remember there was dodgy patch that would add the textures earlier than normal. I think it was nicked from the Korean servers maybe.
Cruma was also great for AOE with flame strike. By 30/35 you could solo full porta/krator rooms. After they added the snipes it was much tougher but basically need to be 40+
I stopped AOE cruma at 48 on my sorc after porta went dark blue, good times :P

P.S. Was a nice PVP video by Vorn(Gustin) that was made with the old graphics. Something like Forbidden Gateway PVP - EA vs Anti-EA with Disturbed - Enemy as the music, anyone know if it still exists?

We got a similiar thread going here too http://boards.lineage2.com/showthread.php?t=145067

I forgot that healers didn't use to flag in pvp totally though!! That use to be awesome, could heal/buff all you wanted and with no wars they would go red on you XD

And I remember spending 4 hours in Cruma at 39 trying to make that last 40 % to get to bishop. That was GOOD exp

I remember making my soon to be bishop and immediately leaving talking island to go back to Elven village because TI was infested with reds and there were no guards scattered around to kill them.

I totally remember when Amandalynn and I went bishop and everyone thought we were stupid because a pp was all you needed.

Yes, but that thread was started in 2006 and just resurrected a couple days ago. Half the stuff we had in 2006 now qualifies as a "remember when?" Many of the people who posted in the first pages of that thread don't even play anymore and many of the people around today didn't play back when that thread was first started.

I've been thinking about this for about a week or more, but haven't logged onto the boards in about that amount of time, so I didn't realize or see that thread when I made this one, nor would I have posted this stuff in that thread. A lot of the time when a thread gets so big like that people don't bother reading it any more.

Anyway, most of my "remember when" were not just about the players "remember when cruma was full!?!" (which could have applied to many chronicles worth of time) but specific ways in which the game itself has been changed since the very early days of the game - OB/Prelude/C1. =)

remember the banana suits? <3
prelude 4 lyfe

http://oranj.org/l2/orfen1st.jpg

i had sword of valhalla in c1, and ppl thought it was a **** swordbreaker LOL.
so they see some noob sh coming at them in knowledge set (zubei) waving a swordbreaker...tt ;)

what was really different prelude > c1 was in prelude, youd fall off the map at EV, and lair didnt exist, no aden, etc. also in c1 narsall lake youd swim from aden to gc, infact we had some fun
pvps underwater there. death pass was a scary place, running the gauntlet of fettered souls to oren lol. that path was full of mobs then.

I started at the end of C2 (long after Beta I'll admit). What I remember most was the many people in Gludin! A "red" running around Gludin was a discussion topic for hours back then! And running from Gludin to Abandoned Camp over and over and over :)

I remember on Talking Island that a roving duo of C-grade nukers (I didn't know they were C-grade then) killed my helpless little toon again and again--lmao--I seem to remember that I had to hit level 15 like 3 or 4 times over a number of DAYS before they went away and I could try to continue to exp toward level 20!

I remember when I could afford a falchion and how amazing I thought that sword was! I also remember hitting 1 million adena in my WH for the first time after some marketing attempts and how rich I thought I was.

I'm sure from those that started even earlier that C2 seemed like a breeze. I do remember dropping my gear on death and how hard it was even to replace a 100k crappy NG weapon two different times as I was trying to level.......

Running up an alt now just seems funny to me in comparison.
~D~

PS. Thanks for the OP idea--it's nice to recall 'back when'....:)

remember the banana suits? <3
prelude 4 lyfe
Who can forget? I had to dig up this old thing I did :D

http://i41.tinypic.com/142687b.jpg

Talking Island was infested with reds and there were no guards (or high levels) to drive them away. My mystic would sneak out the back door and run over the mountain to try to find a place to hunt. Frequently the PKs were so bad that a long evening of playing would result in a net loss of level.

The first time I took the boat to Gludin (a major investment) I thought I had entered St. Peter's Square in Rome, the town was so magnificant. I kept getting lost in Gludin for weeks.

I remember this fellow organizing a group to go hunt in Elvin Ruins on TI, he actually was setting up the group for an ambush, there were about 6-8 reds waiting outside the ruins to kill the group. Yes, organized groups of reds, some would even shake down travellers for tolls on the roads. Some people would finance their main toon by making a red to PK ppl for their drops. My first clan would require a screenshot of applicant's log-in screen to show that they did not have perma reds.

New player don't understand why I always, instantly put red players face down in the dirt.

Who can forget? I had to dig up this old thing I did :D

http://i41.tinypic.com/142687b.jpg

This could be a new idea for next year aprils fools event

if so, i`ll kill mobs naked with my bare hands

When human male mystics stood normal like this: http://www2.elliebelly.net/modules/coppermine/albums/AmberDrake/SoWD.jpg

and held staffs like this http://www2.elliebelly.net/modules/coppermine/albums/AmberDrake/Shot00019.jpg

and some robes/light armor looked like this: http://www2.elliebelly.net/modules/coppermine/albums/AmberDrake/Manticore.jpg

Haha isn't that Salamander look because they were wearing Composite armour and they did not add the graphics yet. Like how Demon Robes looked like Knowledge robes etc. I remember there was dodgy patch that would add the textures earlier than normal. I think it was nicked from the Korean servers maybe.
Cruma was also great for AOE with flame strike. By 30/35 you could solo full porta/krator rooms. After they added the snipes it was much tougher but basically need to be 40+
I stopped AOE cruma at 48 on my sorc after porta went dark blue, good times :P

P.S. Was a nice PVP video by Vorn(Gustin) that was made with the old graphics. Something like Forbidden Gateway PVP - EA vs Anti-EA with Disturbed - Enemy as the music, anyone know if it still exists?

I have this video on my harddrive still, it is the glory days IMO.

God i want to play back in these times come on NC start a progression server ^^ keep everything the way it was back then and let it progress to being better :D

Nostalgia..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v704/i_heart_youX333/Shot00087.jpg

Played Korean beta, closed, open, bartz, lionna, erica, hind, franz, now Phoenix.
Heartless third level 3 clan on Lionna
One of the first BD's

100% legit.

My highest character is only 62 - I've had to take many breaks, and now finally, have the time to reach a goal of nobless/end game content.

I love the Lineage 2 community and miss the times when more people communicated and worked together.

I attended the first and second Ant queen raid on NA.
I was also yelled at by Spam for having a permared archer in Newbie started town when they opened closed beta up to more people.

:x

that shield on the far right looks awesome!

That shield looks graphics glitchy I can't really tell what that one is.. Here is what a kite shield use to look like, oh and what mithril boots use to look like when they were D grade!

http://www.elliebelly.net/avatars/kiteshield.jpg

Hhehehehe those were good times,

I remember talking island, I used to pked people there... It was fun! > ), I hunted the hunters there :).

I remember those times when you pretty much have to run everywhere to get to any hunting ground.

I used to create alt dwarfs to produce some adena to be able to upgrade my weapon for my main.

I remember the feeling about knowing somebody there along the road was hidding to pk you, such emotion was really good. Also that you could drop your weapon make the game more exciting, why they remove such features? because back then the game was just pure hardcore, and only few are able to stand to that kind of games :0.

The grind was painful, and cheaters were newbies so they didnt influence or affect the economy too much, it was easy to destroy them and kill them, they improve over time...

Could NC soft create a pure hardcore server like the one in open beta...? no blesss skills, no level safe, war among all places...

i remember how my first piece of Dgrade was the result of pking a dorf farming bones around elven village.. that was an incentive to go red, now they dont even get undress to suicide on guards when they need to dlvl and keep their farming going :(

OMG TOMA!
*Passes BEERS to all old School players ... yup those were the days!