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