Nexus era

[Angelox]

Does anyone remember exactly when the spires and scions were started? Seems to me like it was almost during Kunark, but not sure.

[cavedude]

Luclin. The Scions most certainly, not sure if I remember the spires being there before but I don't think so.

[sesmar]

What do you mean by started? I started playing just after the release of kunark and the spires existed at this time, but they were just a place that wizards teleported to. Some of them were even just ornamental such as the giant spires in The Great Divide. When Luclin came out the scions were placed at the spires as a means to teleport people to and from the moon. I am still not exactly sure what you where asking but I hope this helps some.

[cavedude]

Yep, I think you are right on. To be sure I am going to take a peak at my Trilogy zones with a zone viewer.

[Kayot]

The spires where in eq since the begining. Or atleast since kunark. I started in kunark and the monks would train safefall by running up the side of the spires and jumping off.

[Angelox]

I was thinking back on all this, and here's what I'm pretty sure happened;
When Kunark came out, they placed a ship in Butcher which was the original way to get there; This is around the same time the big problems with the ships started which must have been related to the Kunark ships. Actually, ships gave problems, sometimes they would "break down" , people would get stuck in zones, etc. The more expanions they put out and added new ships, would generate more problems for them. They started the Scion idea right after Kunark, and since everyone took to it, soon the ships were not worth the work to keep them going - so the scions replaced the ships. Finally, the easiest mode to get around which requires no effort on the customer/player side: the PoK books.
There also was another place for getting ported and it was under the ocean in Timorous Deep: "Teleportation Firepots" - they were a bitch to get to, and you risked getting fried by a big raid dragon that was sometimes out. Anyone remember the firepots?

[cavedude]

A few things I am 100% certain of. Scions did not exist before Luclin. They were added with the Luclin patch as the only way to journey to the moon. (In fact the trigger was and still is? journey to luclin) Boats were still active and used during PoP. I remember because I was part of a PoK book protest, where we refused to use the books or stones to travel. The translocators which replaced boats did not happen until sometime after I stopped playing, and I stopped shortly after the LDoN patch. And yes! I do remember the firepots, though that's all I can say about them :)

[So_1337]

Haha, I protested the books, too. Part of it was just my being stubborn, but most of it had to do with the fact that I'd been bound in the firepot room during every period that it was possible. (There was a time where you couldn't bind in Timorous, in which I was out of luck. I made the run with SoW and DMF as soon as it was changed and the servers came up.) It was always a neat spot to hang out, even though it did get me deathlooped a few times. I'd fall asleep at the keyboard while kiting somewhere, die, and get deathlooped by Faydedar.

Even after PoK, I stayed with the firepots as long as I could. When necessary for raids, I remember hitting the Felwithe or Kelethin pots, as those were the two closest to PoK books.

I'm glad to hear I wasn't the only one who hated the books =P It was fun to see the same people over and over (as only a small group of us were bound there on Zeb, it seemed), and apprentice guides would be bound there before they graduated to having #zone powers. Real good times, thanks for bringing those up =)

(Oh, and it goes without saying that that's where I'm bound at on our server here on EQEmu!)

[sfisque]

yah the firepot room was awesome, one pot for each starting city.

and yah, getting smoked by feydedar was never fun. spanking him for the druid epic was always a blast though. one of the easiest epic fights.

NERF DROODZ@!!!!!1111

== sfisque

[rojadruid]

The spires them selves have been there since before the beta. They where a common assembly point on some server for hate and air raids

[Angelox]

The spires them selves have been there since before the beta. They where a common assembly point on some server for hate and air raids
You're right - I was trying to relate the spires to the Scions, and really, the Scions were placed in the spires later on.
Remember the weddings? I always thought they were sort of silly, but they used to have big weddings at the spires (at least Gfaydark one) all the time. and the GM'S would come and be the "minister".

[sfisque]

bleh. spire weddings were dime a dozen.

my wife and i got married on the double atoll where the the "quest version" of feydedar spawns. one of the prettiest locales in the "old world" i feel. and yah, we got married by a GM, named Sillk, on Xev server. back when each server had its own team of GM/Guides who actually answered petitions.

IIRC the scions were patched in a couple days before luclin went live. they would respond "vaguely" when hailed about performing some type of "portal ritual", but not do anything else. once luclin went live, they became "functional".

== sfisque

[g00niebird]

IIRC, the Scions would open a portal every 5 minutes or so. If you wanted to go, you had to tell the Scion the "journey to Luclin" phrase. Then the Scion would give you a token of some sort. You had to have the token and be in the Scion's area of effect to be teleported to the moon.

Did they change this on Live to where you just say the words and get teleported?

[Angelox]

IIRC, the Scions would open a portal every 5 minutes or so. If you wanted to go, you had to tell the Scion the "journey to Luclin" phrase. Then the Scion would give you a token of some sort. You had to have the token and be in the Scion's area of effect to be teleported to the moon.

Did they change this on Live to where you just say the words and get teleported?
I remember this - I think it just hasn't been worked on here. I can already think of ways to do this, but not really worthwhile - already there are too many ways to teleport around Norrath.
I was just looking to justify the Spires as part of the classic everquest (and they are).