some nostalgia

definitelynobody

Dalayan Beginner
hi. i played this game a few years ago. i was a cleric named eisley. i was also a dev named Erlewine. i spent most of my time in Phoenix Rising and Fair-Weather Friends and as a dev I made Cesspits. i have played a lot of MMOs at a high level like everquest, WoW, project 1999, etc. but without a doubt SoD was the best times i had. was looking through the nostalgia and just thought i'd share some old stuff.

xi valla, the eternal empress - the first video released of 4.3. prior to this, the only documentation of the fight was an excellent google doc made by an excellent person (RIP), which can be viewed here. for anyone who wondered why lleoc & i kept dead shadowknight alt accounts logged out at monster spots and a spreadsheet of vah back monsters spreadsheeted so we could keep them locked down - this is why. vah back was more or less required here. keeping other guilds from getting it kept any pressure off. ranger POV because i still didn't want to show other guilds how i was solo healing it.

warchief rujik moktar - no one had made a writeup or video of this one yet, but i decided to post it anyways because we were pretty far ahead at that point. its too bad the correct models hadn't been patched in yet for the puddles. still, this fight was an absolute masterclass on how to balance a fight for Raid Strength = Healer Mana = Raid Damage. I have no clue how in the world Marza got this fight so perfect that from the very beginning he had it so well balanced that i had to use every tool at my disposal down including meleeing the entire fight and using all clickies and the big pulsing raid complete heal and JUST beat this fight at 0% mana left. this is the oldest video i believe, an early kill, so it features the classic full FWF dream team pretty much, the first people to clear this raid tier.

jyre, the mountain's fury - this one has ventrilo audio, so you'll hear some old, old voices. not mine though for some reason, issue with fraps i think. during my time as both a player and dev, marza fascinated me in many ways. this fight is a great example why - i remember talking with him during development and he described it as something he threw together for fun one night. marza was so incredibly talented at scripting that he was able to make a super detailed and interesting fight for an item that he knew would only ever be done a few times total, in one night. he deserved a lot more credit for his contributions. Marza saved this game.

claw commander era'velu - this one is from quite awhile after its release, after it was moved back outside. this was such a cool fight, when it first came out i remember spending a whole lot of time wiping at 1 or 0%. before the Super Tank era, this fight was super tricky to heal because he did massive tank damage, it was one of the hardest things i remember healing in terms of just pure efficiency required. of course, then we got the power creep and lifesteal spamming SKs etc but yeah. you can see how much effort i was putting in at this point by watching my boxed shaman in the back do nothing but fall over.

rohk, the traitorous hand - probably the most interesting thing to note here is that this was the peak of the overpowered powercreep items before they got nerfed. my character was flat out ridiculous at this point. i was the solo healer, did as much DPS as a regular dps, ran at triple speed, healed group passively from melee, and had more defense than any tank without a 4.3 robe. not too long after this, the Great Woldaff Un-Marza Patch dropped, and all our dreams were smashed, haha. it was bittersweet, but i was a dev at the time and told woldo about all of the things i considered OP and yeah, they needed to be changed. still sucked telling a dev how to nerf your own character. :]

forest gloom guide - a write up of gloom. i'm not sure who wrote this one, but it must not be too old (relatively) as it references chaotic winds running against the pillar. interesting note about that, yeah, i was the one who unfortunately caught them levitating over the slime wall while monitoring fights (a task i did for Marza, because just as he watched FWF do his fights to make sure we did them as intended, now i could handle this.) despite the fact some of them seemed to feel some grudge against me, in reality i discovered it by accident and wanted to believe it was merely misunderstanding of mechanics. from there, i simply told someone (woldo or marza?) that they were levitating over the slimes, either by bug or exploit, and it was in their hands from there. i didnt hear another word about it until everyone else did. fun fact about Gloom - lleoc and i duoed this fight one night, i believe he boxed monk/cleric and i did cleric/wiz. probably my favorite silly achievement in this game.


other junk
clockwork - just me tanking clockwork on my cleric. juicy powercreep.
mistborn - i have no idea why i recorded this and no clue whos character i was playing. a decade may have ravaged my memory, but i do remember one thing for sure - this game was a blast.

i hope you guys are all doing well wherever you are these days. i really did love this game a lot and the amazing time spent with friends. it was an honor to be taken along for the journey with you all. maybe i'll post screenshots another time. enjoy.
 
I still have my original outline for my Dev plan as well. After Cesspits, it was going to lead you across the world to other similar dungeons with exp turn-in quests and such and effectively funnel players to useful places in the world and serve as a function to help new/low level players both unify in one place and level faster to catch up to the rest of the playerbase faster. After Cesspits in Newport, you'd see this: "Priestess Franci says, 'I'm too old for this nonsense. Err.. right, sorry. Here, take this. Hand it back to me if it doesn't fit your needs, and maybe I can find something more appropriate. Maybe we will meet again someday...'"

So the next zone for 30-49 was to be near Erudin, with Franci again pawning her workload off onto you. It would have been a series of Franci being an old veteran just wanting a quiet life but being forced to investigate a weird cult of people following Zoldin all over Dalaya, her being annoyed with it and then pawning off the busywork on to to you. Basically she sat at the zone-in and you handed her stuff and eventually you got to 65. It was sort of an in-joke to my experience as a player at the time too.

I was also planning to make it a way to ease players into harder mechanics, the 2nd zone would've had enemies that weren't standard hp/damage. They would've had custom health and gave more exp than normal and light mechanics, akin to something like Citadel jr.

I probably would've liked to do one more for 65 to get thru the AA grind somewhat easier as well. I was planning to use Plane of Hate for this one, and have it be like a murder mystery theme event that only one group could do at a time. Think like doing an instance run in World of Warcraft. But this had like a random ending as the "killer" so there was variety to it.

Definitely my biggest regret in SoD is not being able to bring this to fruition, as I really enjoyed being a Dev. Even despite how quiet things were at the time (it was basically just Marza and I) I was usually able to struggle my way through the scripting system and ending up enjoying it a lot more than I expected. If I could do it over, I definitely should've just retired as a player at that point and just go to Dev full time. But I was also a guild leader with 17 people relying on me, so it was difficult.

Anyway, just thought I'd share my plan, as I do remember people asking me back then why Cesspits was designed so strangely but me having to keep ii a secret then.
 
im going to go ahead and say it. i get the feeling you want to play again. if thats the case, goto discord and ask if you can start fresh.

most of your raiding friends are gone. you will essentially starting off fresh (for the most part).

good luck!
 
oh no, i definitely wouldn't want to play again. i'm not sure if theres anyone still raiding, but if there is i would perhaps consider being a Dev again, but i do not know who the current staff are, so it's hard for me to guess how that would be received. depending on who is still on the staff, i don't know if i could even get unbanned.

looking back, i think the smartest route for me would've been to retire/ban my player character when i became a dev and just transitioned to dev'ing fulltime. it wouldve been more fun and healthy for me, but like i described above, it was hard also having a guild relying on me. if i just stopped raiding there would've been people pretty upset and/or disappointed at me.

like you said, everyone i know is gone. i looked at the wiki top 5 and i don't believe i recognized more than 2 or 3 names. but if theres still people actively raiding and want new stuff to fight, i'd at least be open to the possibility.
 
Do folks still have Solo's Word Doc write-up of 4.3? That was super helpful first time doing that fight, might be helpful for others who are struggling to put together the pieces.

EDIT: Nvm i'm dumb. didn't see the second link, just the video ones. As I was.
 
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Goon Squad! I play 2008-2009, about one year. Remember those names!

shardsofdalaya.com/fomelo/fomelo.php?char=elagos
( I know it's bad lol. ~160 AA )

I couldn't remember the password ... so start over. ( 2020 )
 
I enjoyed this, mostly because I'm there in a few of them them.

Reehs! That's a great name to see.

I have played in a lot of guilds in a lot of games over the years, and I believe Fair-Weather Friends was basically the perfect guild. We truly had nearly no drama, every raid night was a blast, even if it was just hours/days/weeks of wiping to broken enemies. This was thanks to the amazing personalities in Ventrilo and how well we vibed together. Bango was an incredible guild leader and set the standard for the rest of us to follow. Other people like Reehs, Zurkka, Zorlon, Solosolki, Felyn, Marza, Kiseble, Reehs, Lleoc, Thade, Velleity, Zapple, Asura, Radaere, Fuwok, Kjiel, Reinhardt, Aniketos, Kedrin, Deein, Valdian, Stryda, Versul, and Zorr made for an absolutely amazing raid experience. I looked forward to every raid night even it meant undoubtedly wiping to extremely difficult and extremely bugged things like the ultra-hard trash encounters in Prison post-Custodian that took weeks to learn and didn't even drop loot. (I'm so sorry if I missed any names of the roster) FWF was like the stars aligning. A perfect moment in time making for something I will never forget. It was funny to have that guild name because it was the guild with the *least* disposable relationships I've ever seen in my life.

Some of my best memories in the game are Zorlon coming on Vent blitzed drunk and absolutely shitting on us (especially me), or Solo posting his penis on the FWF forums, or Marza telling us to "get good" against bone Taeshlin for a month(s) over and over and then one day coming in and saying "oops it was bugged all along my bad" or when we would randomly get bored and play other games for awhile like league of legends or EQLive or eqmac or project1999. It was always relaxed and funny and just a good time.

Our close bond was further strengthened by the fact that around this time most people only had 5-20 tomes and we were finally getting Opuses from Tur'Ruj, so this was the birth of the first mass exp farmed characters. After raids, Lleoc, Zurkka, Glorax, Solosolki, and a few others would do exp groups for hours. There were several things that were hilariously OP for AoE exp farming - old Ranger Runic 2. Druid Runic 2. Necromancer Class Opus. Monk Monstro-city staff. Wizards. I may be forgetting some, but Cataclysm gets a special mention as I tried probably a dozen times to get this spell fixed and to get the staff to understand how it was broken, but I don't know if it was ever addressed. (I don't mean this in any insulting way, I'm sure it was not an easy thing to fix.). We would do things like pull all of the Bloody Quarry elites and combo and SK casting Veil (aggro transfer) and running away along with Cataclysms with my rangers Runic 2 and a 5 delay weapon and Glorax's Class Tome nuke. The game would freeze for like 30 seconds then we'd come back either all dead or with a bajillion corpses around us. I remember one hilarious moment where we tried to pull ALL of Rust, both machine wings and the outside, and bring them all to the entrance, and some random guy zoned in just as it happened, and he said he gained like 40 AA's from the assistance experience. (Note: We did report all this stuff. But from our perspective, how are we to know what is intended and not? How many months pass with no response before we determine it's working as intended?)

I also have to give a hat tip to the design and writing of Ikisith. From the Hate's Fury quest (I am Cabin Boy Shin! I may not be the brightest but I'll always be fed!) to The Vah thinkmeats gets a lot of flak, but the dude is a straight up incredibly talented writer. Read all the dialogue from The Vah and tell me you could do better. Yes, people focus on things like the assassinations being obnoxious gameplay, but the story behind them is so well written. The story of Yclist, the hidden city where everyone stands still like statues frozen in time. The Refuge and how much work it took to earn their trust. The Remnants and it's overarching storyline about interfering with nature. (I especially love the undead tunnels and how it relates to Kaezul). and so many more. Oh, and remember the triggered Kaeluzian forces wars that would happen in South Ro, and could spread to Newport if not pushed back? This game was just so incredibly well thought out and it just oozes passion. I am so grateful I got to be a part of it.
 
I'm puzzled why you have posted a second thread; I can understand the first one but the second suggests that you are at a crossroads or at some time of stress, self-reflection or similar. SoD was a very good game in its time, I really like the EQ raid mob model which requires thought and strategy rather than running faster and faster to avoid AoE that you get in FFXIV. I also like 18/24 man raiding because there is nothing more fun than dicking around with friends and getting loot.

Personally I would have no hesitation in returning if there was a Euro raiding time guild full of like-minded people who wanted to enjoy themselves and kill monsters.

Since I quit both I and my wife both had cancers successfully treated and 3 months ago my younger daughter was seriously injured when she was hit by a car when crossing the road. She was in intensive care for 8 days with multiple fractures and bilateral dissections of her carotid arteries. Two days ago she was told it was safe to start walking again and she will make a full recovery although she may suffer long term pain given how bad the injuries were. This is what is important, your family and their health, next comes a good job and providing for your family and about 49th on the list of important things is playing video games.

I wish you and everybody I played with in the game well, just bear in mind what really matters and it's great if you play this or any other game and you enjoy it just remember though it's only a game and what matters is real life because real life is NOT a dress rehearsal and there are no rezzes in real life. Oh and in case you wondered, thanks to Covid and being retired I have too much time on my hands so I occasionally browse here and see what is happening and if I see an old name I may post something just to say hello.
 
I'm puzzled why you have posted a second thread; I can understand the first one but the second suggests that you are at a crossroads or at some time of stress, self-reflection or similar. SoD was a very good game in its time, I really like the EQ raid mob model which requires thought and strategy rather than running faster and faster to avoid AoE that you get in FFXIV. I also like 18/24 man raiding because there is nothing more fun than dicking around with friends and getting loot.

Hey Nuchre, good to hear from you again and sorry to hear about all the difficulties you've been going through. All I can do is offers my condolences. PR was a great time and the guild was and will always be near and dear to my heart, from you, Dz, Meister, Vart, Ratkon, Agit and all the rest, I miss those days indeed.

I hope for the best for you and your family
 
I still have my original outline for my Dev plan as well. After Cesspits, it was going to lead you across the world to other similar dungeons with exp turn-in quests and such and effectively funnel players to useful places in the world and serve as a function to help new/low level players both unify in one place and level faster to catch up to the rest of the playerbase faster. After Cesspits in Newport, you'd see this: "Priestess Franci says, 'I'm too old for this nonsense. Err.. right, sorry. Here, take this. Hand it back to me if it doesn't fit your needs, and maybe I can find something more appropriate. Maybe we will meet again someday...'"

So the next zone for 30-49 was to be near Erudin, with Franci again pawning her workload off onto you. It would have been a series of Franci being an old veteran just wanting a quiet life but being forced to investigate a weird cult of people following Zoldin all over Dalaya, her being annoyed with it and then pawning off the busywork on to to you. Basically she sat at the zone-in and you handed her stuff and eventually you got to 65. It was sort of an in-joke to my experience as a player at the time too.

I was also planning to make it a way to ease players into harder mechanics, the 2nd zone would've had enemies that weren't standard hp/damage. They would've had custom health and gave more exp than normal and light mechanics, akin to something like Citadel jr.

I probably would've liked to do one more for 65 to get thru the AA grind somewhat easier as well. I was planning to use Plane of Hate for this one, and have it be like a murder mystery theme event that only one group could do at a time. Think like doing an instance run in World of Warcraft. But this had like a random ending as the "killer" so there was variety to it.

Definitely my biggest regret in SoD is not being able to bring this to fruition, as I really enjoyed being a Dev. Even despite how quiet things were at the time (it was basically just Marza and I) I was usually able to struggle my way through the scripting system and ending up enjoying it a lot more than I expected. If I could do it over, I definitely should've just retired as a player at that point and just go to Dev full time. But I was also a guild leader with 17 people relying on me, so it was difficult.

Anyway, just thought I'd share my plan, as I do remember people asking me back then why Cesspits was designed so strangely but me having to keep ii a secret then.
Hats off for The Cesspits. Truly a great beginner zone. Just ran through it with my two kids who've never played EQ before (EQ actually being one of their first games entirely), and it really suited their beginner skills very well. So kudos indeed.
 
In a lot of those videos, voted 5. Haven't played since 2014, though.

I agree though that this was good times back then. For me it was the right combination of cool dudes to do content with, and most of the relevant content was all passion project type stuff where the people making/maintaining it were more responsive than actual commercial games with raiding content. Not only the new content but going back to sort of older content that was not very frequently done like we did with the Fae stuff in the Goon Squad guild and the broken stuff got looked at an adjusted from time to time while were doing.

Compared to when I was in a top WoW guild in 2005-2006 and we were literally beta testing content that would stay unkillable and broken for months despite the fact they were easily making over ten million dollars off subscriptions every month. I never played any of the expansions for the game since that experience of beta testing broken Blackwing, AQ40 and Naxxramas stuff they didn't even playtest to make sure the mechanics even worked before publishing for the playerbase just burned me out.

There was also something to be said about SoD being fairly well balanced all things considered. Other games of this type usually just throw their hands up and do a new level expansion with more bloat at some point whereas with SoD there's some real long progression here both vertical and horizontal in terms of gearing and content. This was taking the EQ engine and making an actually enjoyable game out of it. The only time I was really dreading it and burning out was grinding money for charms when that was very time-consuming, which I was told a few years back wasn't an issue anymore.
 
For me it was the right combination of cool dudes to do content with, and most of the relevant content was all passion project type stuff where the people making/maintaining it were more responsive than actual commercial games with raiding content.
still true today.
The only time I was really dreading it and burning out was grinding money for charms when that was very time-consuming, which I was told a few years back wasn't an issue anymore.
iirc after 2.5 charisma started effecting vendor values, blazing firebeads used to vendor for 7900 but now they vendor for 9k etc.
 
hi. i played this game a few years ago. i was a cleric named sabuti. i was also a dev named Erlewine.
Ok hello
for anyone who wondered why lleoc & i kept dead shadowknight alt accounts logged out at monster spots and a spreadsheet of vah back monsters spreadsheeted so we could keep them locked down - this is why. vah back was more or less required here. keeping other guilds from getting it kept any pressure off. ranger POV because i still didn't want to show other guilds how i was solo healing it.
Wow this is part of the criticism of no-lifers: toxic behavior
no one had made a writeup or video of this one yet, but i decided to post it anyways because we were pretty far ahead at that point.... so it features the classic full FWF dream team pretty much, the first people to clear this raid tier.
Previous comment reinforced by "we were the best" rhetoric
i remember talking with him during development... Marza saved this game.
They have banned people for that, also nice swipe at current staff
my character was flat out ridiculous at this point. i was the solo healer, did as much DPS as a regular dps, ran at triple speed, healed group passively from melee, and had more defense than any tank without a 4.3 robe.
Must have been pre-your-ban
not too long after this, the Great Woldaff Un-Marza Patch dropped, and all our dreams were smashed, haha. but i was a dev at the time and told woldo about all of the things i considered OP and yeah, they needed to be changed.
Clearly your feedback was important
i was the one who unfortunately caught them levitating over the slime wall while monitoring fights (a task i did for Marza, because just as he watched FWF do his fights to make sure we did them as intended, now i could handle this.)
Clearly you were very impotent
lleoc and i duoed this fight one night, i believe he boxed monk/cleric and i did cleric/wiz. probably my favorite silly achievement in this game.
Huh so in this instance, nothing wrong with a T11 6man when we can just duo it..............
other junk: When I began exploiting diety fights to repeat them until obtaining pacify clickies, that was the shit because I had figured out this game and was better than everyone else, as a player and a dev.
You missed a part.

Good hearing from you Sabuti
 
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