We started on this server about 2007 I think, just the two of us. At that time we had one character each and used a bot (oh the memories of using a bot
). Once we got to 70+, we quickly realised our progression would begin to slow and eventually stop entirely without more numbers.We had no intention of joining another, existing guild because we really didn't want to play on someone else's schedule. We did make a couple friends who we invited to our guild but, still, we would have needed more and we wanted to be able to do things ourselves. I'd done the whole raid guild thing on live and, to be honest, hated it. I had no intention of doing that again. Definitely not running one.
I began by trying to manually box with some success. We were able to do ToV but it was really tough managing the extra boxes. It was just me, to begin with. It was fun in itself and challenging but when something went slightly wrong then it all usually went very wrong.
Then I tried MQ2. Initially, it was just the basics. But as I learned more about it then I began adding more functionality to what I could do. My friend Rigz took the plunge and we were soon pushing the limits on how many characters we could control (and run concurrently).
Before long, we'd leveled up a raid force and written lots of scripts and we'd started to progress at a fun rate (still slow, the content on this server is very well designed).
We reached T7 and the encounters became more and more challenging, requiring a mixture of improving our gear, our tactics and our scripts.
The pinnacle of this was beating the Lithlurian encounter, quite clearly designed to counter MQ2 (whether by intent or not). This was probably the first encounter that we beat primarily because of intensive scripting. It felt like a huge achievement but mostly due to our ability to build scripts to control 24+ characters precisely in order to defeat the boss.
There have been so many highlights (our Zek kill was just one of them, an encounter that didn't require much scripting at all but was probably one of the biggest, long term challenges we faced).
We were starting out on the second raft of bosses in T8 when we stopped playing. We're back now but are only playing a single group (3 each) through from scratch (no PLing).
The thing is, we would have stopped playing way back when we were just two 70+ characters if I hadn't started boxing and not much longer after then had we not used MQ2. And we would have missed out so much enjoyment. Because the game, with MQ2, was enormously fun.
It still is now, in our single group.
In an ideal world, the server would have hundreds of players looking to group together. At one point, it did have hundreds of concurrent players. Whilst we couldn't commit to another guild (or just didn't want to) at any point, we always helped out others, let others join us (where not guild instanced), had others help us and so on.
My personal favourite memory was working with Fulken to complete the warrior 3.0. We got the weapon at the same time, he was the first to get it on the server (and I was second, 5 seconds later
). We achieved this because we worked together and that happens here all the time, regardless of Mq2. Mq2 didn't make us reclusive. It just let us have tons of fun. And I think it was used just as much back when the server was at its highest population as it is used now. I think this server is the best run and has the best content without equal and I'm really glad you guys allowed mq2.
.
) . I can see where these guys are coming from. It's a lonely world out here these days lol. Only a slight reason behind me never being around. I can't kill much alone and having no one to hang out with is a major bummer. Thanks for letting my slow n00b butt tag along with you for VT last time Cad!