First Surprises in COH

[Tubbius]

[Septipheran]

The first time my Warshade went Nova form. I read about Kheldian forms on the forums a bit. I read the power description. But my Warshade was my third ever character, and I was still very green. Turning into a Dark Nova for the first time was probably the minute that I officially fell in love with COH. So much awesome.

[ukaserex]

My first and largest surprise was that CoH was an MMO and had other players in the game.

My second surprise was that when I went to manage my enhancements, I thought that I was required to slot one enhancement of each type listed. I was slotting for ED well before ED, lol.
I was level 23 on my very first character, Ukase Rex as an electric/electric blaster. And then, finally, I started to slot a power that took 7 different types of enhancements. Then I figured it out.

[Perfidus]

My very first surprise was ragdoll physics. I didn't play at launch, obviously.

One of the most memorable 'whoa!' moments was the first time I saw two Hercules combine into a Zeus. Some people say they saw it coming, but I never did. I'd never even seen a Zeus before that moment, and it'd be many levels before I ever saw it again, as I was lackeyed up at the time.

More surprises that come to mind were the parts in Ice Mistral and Eden Trial when you seamlessly go through those big open floor holes and end up down below in a brand new environment. This was used more in later content, but wow, things like that told me as a player, what I could hope to expect in the coming months and years.

[DJMoose]

Too many first surprises to name!

Probably my favorite first surprise was the first time I used the Super Jump power. 

Me -->  "I can jump over buildings!"

[Mysterious J]

My very first surprise was running up to a fellow hero in Gemini Park in Galaxy, a chap in a black outfit with a bunch of straps, going by the name of Murk Eidolon....  I think that was my first hospital trip, too.

Another huge surprise was villains doing knockback.  I remember literally laughing out loud the first time I got swept off my feet and tossed over a balcony railing.  I seem to recall that they either added it in Issue 2, or just made it much more prevalent when they ramped up the Outcasts with Hurricane and Hurl Boulder.  (Iirc, that lasted about a week before they nerfed them.)

First time doing Synapse, and coming out of the warehouse straight into the arms of Babbage.  That was awesome!  I didn't even know there were mobs like that in the game.

[Heroette]

Doing my first Positron TF with a PUG.  In those days, no one thought of doing shortcuts (it was very early on in the games beginning).  The suprise was how long the stinking TF took and how many didn't stick around to the end.  So we started with 8 people and 7 hours later, only two of us left.  And we killed the boss, but it took us running back to the arena and buying inspirations while the other kept going.  I will never forget that and that Century was the other person who stuck it out to the end with me.  We remained friends since that time.  .

[Risha]

Those BP Death Mages who could summon zombies who would kill you and whom you didn't get any xp for.

NO OTHER GAME HAS PEOPLE THANKING YOU ON A REGULAR BASIS, OR NEWS SHEETS SAYING HOW WONDERFUL YOU ARE.  I REALLY MISS THAT.  "You are my new favorite hero."  "I hope my son grows up to be like you."  Even "Maybe capes aren't such a bad thing."

And something else fun and wonderful that slipped my mind so I'll come back and post...

[Agta]

My first suprises in coh was making an sg. I made sg called Agta sg was 3rd spot on 100 top sg list during 2005, was like 40 mill prestige and base was worth 40 mill prestige i was shock the base upkeep was 500k prestige!  Then the biggest suprize was the shocking of them all my account gt hack and deleted all my characters and deleted all my sg members and deleted the base which i work so hard for months.  I petition and told them of what happen i got my characters back but my sg members and my base design, they couldnt get it back and worst of all they cant gt the prestige back it went back to 0 prestige. I was devasteded it was my 1st worst feeling bad about CoH i actually quit playing for 1 month but its hard life without CoH. i came back with vengence and created 5 more Agta sgs and all went to 100 top sg list for years. I had learn i wasnt the only victim, the hacker was name shoe and his follower name the mexos they created an sg and they had made CoH corrupted with hacking and lies. they targeted top 10 sg list and if they dont like any players they would tells lies about them and petition and they get the players account banned for life. This group creating havoc to COH actually made alot of people quit the game. i remember when i started playing, server was always full every server was red and i actually waited to gt into Freedom server. I think the reason CoH going down back then was thers alot of hackers and bad players, they like to destroy people who is better than them and the biggest of why soo many people quit the game was the Nerfing, it started from nerfing fire tanks tht was the biggest drop of CoH players in History and Nerfing keep on coming and CoH keep on losing people. CoH was no 1 MMO game of the year 2004, you wonder why didnt keep up and hold the no.1 because was the most nerfing game of all MMO game! People like me who built supergroups and help alot of people we are the 1 keep CoH alive we work so hard keep sg member happy, younger people was the hardest to keep them stay active CoH they had many things happen on ther life they play other games. For thus leader in supergroup we are united we made CoH community we help hundreds and thousands of people over the years. I salute you fellow leaders sg we are the true elite of CoH players and i share your pain we work so hard over the years we are the forgeten Heroes no1 is talking about us. People dont relize how hard is to power lvl some 1 for free all we gt was thanks. We did it becouse we luv CoH and we wanna make people happy for playing CoH. I miss CoH i miss my 8 Agta sgs if your from Agta sgs you can watch vid in youtube i post 5 Agta sgs vid, 3 more to come just look up City of Heroes - Agta sg base tour....

[Risha]

Wow, Agta.  I was mostly solitary, with two tiny sg's.  I DID belong to one large sg that had lies told about the leader.  I'm not sure what happened because I went away on a retreat and when I came back the sg was spiralling down into nothing and finally disappeared.

Thank your for all the help you gave to new players -- and it's sad that surprises can be bad in a more-than-be-stomped-and-defeated way.

[TonyV]

UniqueDragon, is that you?

[Knightslayer]

My first ones were "OMG! Those NPCS are talking about ME!" and "Sweet! I can do hero stuff like chasing a cutpurse/Dyne dealer across half the zone!" (with no travel powers whatsoever those early levels back then, except my Swiftness and/or Hurdle and Combat Jumping on a later alt )

[Electric-Knight]

My first ones were "OMG! Those NPCS are talking about ME!" and "Sweet! I can do hero stuff like chasing a cutpurse/Dyne dealer across half the zone!" (with no travel powers whatsoever those early levels back then, except my Swiftness and/or Hurdle and Combat Jumping on a later alt )

Yep, about the NPCs talking about me! And, YES, one of my favorite early memories was chasing some Hellion up flights of stairs on the fire escape, off the building, up another... Hahaha, I loved that.

Also... You slay me! 

[Atlantea]

"The Technology Store in IP is WHERE??? Wow... good thing I have superspeed!"

[healix]

Some of my first surprizes from the game were:

1. The realistic actual sound of running on grass, wood, sand etc.
2. Running in ss back and forth in front of the atm/mailboxes and watching money and letters fly out.
3. The sound of ball hitting pins while standing at the Atlas bowling alley door.
4. The first time I stood in front of the tram's bathroom door and heard 'gassy noises then flushing'.
5. Flying for the first time.
6. Seeing Statesman ingame for the first time. (I have always thought of him as the 'heroic' symbol/role model for the game.)

[eabrace]

These qualify less as surprises and more "I was new, give me a break."

* I used to try to dodge traffic like I was playing a game of Frogger, not realizing that being hit by a car while crossing the street wouldn't harm me
* The first few times I entered a warehouse mission, I thought I had to sneak past the security camera mounted on the wall as I came in.

[Aggelakis]

* The first few times I entered a warehouse mission, I thought I had to sneak past the security camera mounted on the wall as I came in.

This is adorable and my mental image of you has shifted a touch more toward whimsy.

[eabrace]

This is adorable and my mental image of you has shifted a touch more toward whimsy.

I don't remember the exact conversation, but I do recall being a little embarrassed the first time I entered a warehouse on a team and the team asked me what I was doing.

[corvus1970]

1. The realistic actual sound of running on grass, wood, sand etc.

This. And I think at some point some of the sounds were enhanced or upgraded. I seem to recall that early on, when you jumped on top of a sheet-metal roof, it just sounded like you landed on pavement. But later they changed it, and it sounded like real sheet-metal, and I just said "wow!" and proceeded to just jump around on the roof for a few moments.

[dwturducken]

I have to confess the traffic befuddled me, at first, too. Once I found out it wouldn't hurt me, I was irritated that I couldn't jump on top of one of the trucks and ride it.