JohnCapital
Slayer
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2006
- Posts
- 9,831
- Location
- Colorado
- Society
- Freelancer
- Avatar Name
- John Teacher Capital
Quick history lesson for those new folks, or those that didn't notice what happened:
For a long time, the place to sweat was Camp Phoenix. (Yes, the teleporter.)
It was very nice. You'd tp over, and almost immediately start sweating berries, snables, sabakuma, and the occasional corn that someone drug over. During those days, there was no turret by the TP. We'd all gather around and sweat as mobs actually spawned right at our feet.
Quite frequently, someone would even bring in some armax or atrox from across the river. Those are great fun to sweat in a group.
How long was camp phoenix the main sweating spot? Put it this way: In the beginning (I'm told) Phoenix was the only TP that you didn't have on your map and had to go find. (This was long before Amethera was even discovered.) Many stories abound of folks sweating the diripi (while laying down, so they couldn't hit you, IIRC) or sweating from the wing of the nearby spaceship so you couldn't get hit.
In short, the main spot for sweating almost from the beginning was Camp Phoenix.
Late Aug./early Sept. 2006
L-A-G cripples Calypso. Moving, hunting, mining, and sweating are almost impossible, due to rubberbanding.
Early Sept. 2006 (Can't quite find the exact day this started. Lil help?)
Calypsians log in to find that mob spawn at Phoenix has dropped to near zero. Those mobs they do find won't give any sweat. And a strange fog has enveloped the entire location.
A few days later, a turret was placed right next to the TP, making sweating/hunting there impossible.
In essence, Camp Phoenix is dead as far as sweating is concerned. Non-depositers and noobies trying the game out before depositing are forced to find new places to go. The great sweat migration begins.
During this time, many other sweating spots were tried, such as Fort Troy, Atlas Island North, etc. It was during this time that folks found out how good Nea's Place was for sweating, especially when done in huge groups. At this time, Ambulimax were so docile, you could almost sweat them with them attacking you at all. Also the turret was further from the revive, so you could literally sweat, die, revive and sweat all without moving. Wonder why they moved the turret.
Eventually, the fog and sweating restrictions were lifted from Phoenix, but the mob spawn is still terribly low. The turret quickly eats up mobs due to careless sweaters.
Valiant attempts were done to revive the old Camp Phoenix days, but alas, they simply didn't take hold. The highly reduced mob spawn made it simply too much effort to manage a decent sweating spot 24/7.
Late Nov. 2006
Sweating was again turned off, but this time at Fort Troy. Once again the beginning Calypsians were forced to trek around looking for other spots to sweat.
During these few months, since there was no real "sweat center" except Nea's, a lot of testing an experimenting took place. Seems a few folks found new ways to trap mobs and sweat them safely. Example: Atrox at Zychion Citadel. Those bridges worked wonders. Due to this, VU 8.8 came out Dec. 18, 2006. This update introduced the "This creature is in a condition where it cannot be damaged or sweated" action we currently enjoy today. (Although this was also in response to some dubious hunting practices going on as well.)
Jan 17 2007
VU 8.8.2 came,and that day, Swamp Camp was discovered. Close to PA, lots of small mobs, a protected revive right in the center? It's almost as if this place were tailor made for beginning sweaters.
And so, 4 months after the death of sweating at Camp Phoenix, Swamp Camp has become the main spot for new Calypsians to sweat and begin to learn of their new world. Although Nea's currently stays the #2 spot. I'm pretty sure MA didn't anticipate that occurring when this all started.
Apr. 14 & Sept 10, 2007
However, MA still occasionally "turns off" sweat in some locations. For a few days, they did it to Nea's, not once but many times.
So now, we have a main spot for beginners to sweat. High qty of sweat is begin gathered by n00bies on a daily basis. All the things that occurred in other places is occurring here, except with MA's approval, I guess.
The biggest difference I can see between Camp Phoenix and Swamp camp is that at Phoenix, we were literally sitting right on the TP, While Swamp Camp has been placed just outside PA server boundaries. (Ironically enough, Nea's is now the "sweat close to the TP spot". Go figure.)
So, what really happened? Was Phoenix turned off as part of "balancing" but it was discovered adjustments were required? Did they find that newbies needed a sweat spot close to Port Atlantis, otherwise they didn't stick around? Was it simply an attempt to move the sweaters away from TPs for lag reasons? (Was never any lag issues in Phoenix that I recall, but just asking.) Was this a result of the overall lag problems? Was adjustments in the "sweating culture" attempted?
I'm not sure of the full answer. Perhaps we'll never know. But at least now you have the overall history of a place many of us called our sweating home: Camp Phoenix.
For a long time, the place to sweat was Camp Phoenix. (Yes, the teleporter.)
It was very nice. You'd tp over, and almost immediately start sweating berries, snables, sabakuma, and the occasional corn that someone drug over. During those days, there was no turret by the TP. We'd all gather around and sweat as mobs actually spawned right at our feet.
Quite frequently, someone would even bring in some armax or atrox from across the river. Those are great fun to sweat in a group.
How long was camp phoenix the main sweating spot? Put it this way: In the beginning (I'm told) Phoenix was the only TP that you didn't have on your map and had to go find. (This was long before Amethera was even discovered.) Many stories abound of folks sweating the diripi (while laying down, so they couldn't hit you, IIRC) or sweating from the wing of the nearby spaceship so you couldn't get hit.
In short, the main spot for sweating almost from the beginning was Camp Phoenix.
Late Aug./early Sept. 2006
L-A-G cripples Calypso. Moving, hunting, mining, and sweating are almost impossible, due to rubberbanding.
Early Sept. 2006 (Can't quite find the exact day this started. Lil help?)
Calypsians log in to find that mob spawn at Phoenix has dropped to near zero. Those mobs they do find won't give any sweat. And a strange fog has enveloped the entire location.
A few days later, a turret was placed right next to the TP, making sweating/hunting there impossible.
In essence, Camp Phoenix is dead as far as sweating is concerned. Non-depositers and noobies trying the game out before depositing are forced to find new places to go. The great sweat migration begins.
During this time, many other sweating spots were tried, such as Fort Troy, Atlas Island North, etc. It was during this time that folks found out how good Nea's Place was for sweating, especially when done in huge groups. At this time, Ambulimax were so docile, you could almost sweat them with them attacking you at all. Also the turret was further from the revive, so you could literally sweat, die, revive and sweat all without moving. Wonder why they moved the turret.
Eventually, the fog and sweating restrictions were lifted from Phoenix, but the mob spawn is still terribly low. The turret quickly eats up mobs due to careless sweaters.
Valiant attempts were done to revive the old Camp Phoenix days, but alas, they simply didn't take hold. The highly reduced mob spawn made it simply too much effort to manage a decent sweating spot 24/7.
Late Nov. 2006
Sweating was again turned off, but this time at Fort Troy. Once again the beginning Calypsians were forced to trek around looking for other spots to sweat.
During these few months, since there was no real "sweat center" except Nea's, a lot of testing an experimenting took place. Seems a few folks found new ways to trap mobs and sweat them safely. Example: Atrox at Zychion Citadel. Those bridges worked wonders. Due to this, VU 8.8 came out Dec. 18, 2006. This update introduced the "This creature is in a condition where it cannot be damaged or sweated" action we currently enjoy today. (Although this was also in response to some dubious hunting practices going on as well.)
Jan 17 2007
VU 8.8.2 came,and that day, Swamp Camp was discovered. Close to PA, lots of small mobs, a protected revive right in the center? It's almost as if this place were tailor made for beginning sweaters.
And so, 4 months after the death of sweating at Camp Phoenix, Swamp Camp has become the main spot for new Calypsians to sweat and begin to learn of their new world. Although Nea's currently stays the #2 spot. I'm pretty sure MA didn't anticipate that occurring when this all started.
Apr. 14 & Sept 10, 2007
However, MA still occasionally "turns off" sweat in some locations. For a few days, they did it to Nea's, not once but many times.
So now, we have a main spot for beginners to sweat. High qty of sweat is begin gathered by n00bies on a daily basis. All the things that occurred in other places is occurring here, except with MA's approval, I guess.
The biggest difference I can see between Camp Phoenix and Swamp camp is that at Phoenix, we were literally sitting right on the TP, While Swamp Camp has been placed just outside PA server boundaries. (Ironically enough, Nea's is now the "sweat close to the TP spot". Go figure.)
So, what really happened? Was Phoenix turned off as part of "balancing" but it was discovered adjustments were required? Did they find that newbies needed a sweat spot close to Port Atlantis, otherwise they didn't stick around? Was it simply an attempt to move the sweaters away from TPs for lag reasons? (Was never any lag issues in Phoenix that I recall, but just asking.) Was this a result of the overall lag problems? Was adjustments in the "sweating culture" attempted?
I'm not sure of the full answer. Perhaps we'll never know. But at least now you have the overall history of a place many of us called our sweating home: Camp Phoenix.
. The turret was just a little short in range so the ambus had their fun right at the revival.