[Romulus]

I was looking through the file MY Documents on my system and came across this little history I wrote up back in Feb 2004

I woke up today with this urge to out down in writing my first experiences with Jumpgate. Why I have not clue but you sometimes just have to follow the instinct



I started back in Nov 2000. I think that was the date. Thought Pilot registry shows me joining 1/1/2. I know I did not start on New Years day. I was in CompUSA and say the 3DO box for the game on the shelf and I have always loved space type games so figured I would give it a shot. I never played a Multiplayer game before so I had no idea what to expect. Traditionally I don’t like flying games as I always seemed to hit the ground a little too fast. J



Well I got the game and spent the first couple of days running into the stations and various rocks around station space. Once I got venturous I decided to make my first jump through the gate and flew right at it and went right through it. What the heck I did not jump. No, I did not read the manual that came with the game. I tried that a few times and still no jump but I did hit the pedal. I decided it was time to break out the book and see what I was supposed to have read.



Well got the basic controls down and make my first jump. Pretty cool until my shields starting flaring and some pink things were shooting at me. I could not out run the things for crap. Man they should give you some engines that will let you get somewhere fast. So I went to the closed gate which would take me home and as able to get out alive but Jumped into another sector and had no idea how to get home. Yes I forgot to read about pulling up the map. There were no more pink creatures with intent to kill me at the moment so I got the book out again and find what I was looking for.



I made it back to station and started my first docking with the station. Needless to say I did not read about 100 m limit on docking speeds. So Boom I went.



Well after a few days I was starting to get the habit of what I need to do. Thought I was not leveling very fast as I spent most of my time exploring Sol Space. I didn’t understand the need to take missions to every station but that came later. I ran into my first -=MACK=- pilot at Sol Depot. JUMPDEMON. He was out flying around in a fancy fighter and we chatted a bit before he had to fly off on some very important mission. On parting he told me that I was looking for a squad to look up -=MACK=- and they would be glad to show me the ropes.



Well on week two the fun started. Sol had a FM and I think it was for the bomber or the freighter can’t remember. Zamboni was in Sol Cornea asking for people to act as runners. I had nothing better to do and I was not really leveling any. So I joined up and have repeated instructions on what I had to do I started my runs from cornea to Wake. This is where I met up with Javater, Mamer and I think his name was Ricardo (Really fuzzy here). It seemed like every night I was on the four of us were on the same runner missions. We had a blast racing to wake and back killing flux along the way. Then Zamboni who was acting as a broker asked for a couple of us to divert from runner to escort my next -=MACK=- pilot JPSpiderman (spelling) who was coming in with Uranium (I think). They said he was coming from somewhere that was going to take some him an hour and we were supposed to me him in ZR to protect him against the flux. So Javater, Ricardo(Fuzzy here), and I decided to change course and fly to ZR to help fly him in. Well we were able to get there in time and help escort him back to Cornea with no problems until we got to cornea. While JP was docking either someone bumped him or he went in a little fast went boom on the station. Ricardo(fuzzy here) immediately said “Wasn’t me” after the explosion. He was not even near the pilot when JPs ship went up but I was rolling on the floor laughing so hard. Sounded just like a little kids. “Wasn’t me” Well the FM was completed and Brokers were feeling kind of rich or very free and easy with the money as I made 1 million credits doing the runs and that was a lot of bucks for me.



Next couple of days Java and I started flying together where I would take transport missions in my new 60 hold ship and fly to Hyperial taking gold. How many times did I run into the roids at the Main gate Jumpgate I don’t know but I know Java was ribbing me so much that he used to fly to the roid and tell me to target him so I would not run into it. This is why those roids have a gold tint to them.



Well, Soon after Java and I started loosely working Pony express where we would buy sol equipment and fly them to Quants during there FM missions when we were not acting as runners down there. I almost got into trouble down in Quant space by changing the beacons over to Sol Blue when they were gray. At the time I did not understand about the tax ramifications. But some Quant veterans who I had dealt with on my pony express missions worked out a deal so I was not downed for my actions.



Java want to join a Squad and suggested -=MACK=- since we were mainly into hauling cargo and running FM missions. I was more interested in opening Pony express but after repeated requests by Java I joined -=MACK=- with him and that was probably the best thing I could have done. The group at the time was pretty large and there was always pilots on that would help you and guide your growth. I know there was quite a few that would try to give me some credits but I would always turn then down as I wanted to earn my money the old fashioned way.



I then commenced to start working on my Novas and while working on my AMN Nova I ran in -=MACK=- Pilot TeaJae who was flying some heavy stuff. I remember asking her if I could escort her through the unregulated space. We I am not a great aim so when we hit one sector and there was three flux targeting her I had the vision of her going down in flames on my watch. I was sweating this action but I was not going to let this go down as the day Romulus let a team mate down. I stayed as close as I could to her until they were all within 8k of us and then I let loose 1 missile at two of the fluxes and turned to engage the remaining flux as look would have it all were shot down at precisely the same time. So I had three kills broadcast at the same time. She went "Whoo Hoo Romulus" and away she went on her mission.



When I started my Hyperial Mission I ran in Jumpdemon again and I noticed that the entire time I was Hyperial Nova runs he was always fluxing. That is when I activated my first KopyKat Program for him and commenced to emulate what he was doing. Actually flew his hunting grounds while he was not on. At this time though I was only a laser hunter. I was complaining how I just could not get the big dudes(C-5, C6). They were killing me before I could get close enough. Well, along comes Silencer who had me install Battlecom and install ammo guns. He took me hunting and showed me the proper way to use ammo and how to joust. Without this training I don’t think I would have switched over to ammo.



To bring my early memories of this game into perspective, it was the squad I joined that added to this game. Without the squad I would not have had the chance to fly in a 15 tow convoy with 10 escorts, I would not have lost 75 million on equipment run to KH when I was downed in KH space. I was later reimbursed by Valen of the Sol Navy. For that I consider him a very honorable pilot and at the time was 80 percent of my capital.



I am not a PVP pilot as you can tell by my pilot records. The only kill I have was in self defense and was by pure luck and a load of MS missiles.



Thanks -=MACK=- for the memories of this game and they main reason that I have stayed with the game for as long as I have.

[Pujol]

[qic]Thanks for sharing the memories Rom. I also have fond memories of all the pilots that you have mentioned.

That same FM mission for the Light Transport or bomber, I remember patrolling between Cornea and Wake to keep the Flux off the runners. In those days the flux just did not go away. You could end up with major swarms in well traveled sectors.

Thanks again for bringing good memories to the fore. [/qic]

[ELPIRATA]

I think for me.. OEC did it in a huge part, but =SR= has been nothing less. I came to Jumpgate thinking I would be a fighter pilot like in Xwing, where I could face 12-1 odds and come back alive... but in Jumpgate... nope, you can't do that against live opponents, I guess, or at least not me.

Anyways, I joined OEC in beta, I was the 7th member in and back then I got in as Alpha-05, with CobraMac as our wing captain, and flying alongside their Nixes got me really hooked.

Being there the day we got into a war with UZI was something that I'll never forget. Our best Nixes had gone to join The Dark Path and here we were, Karash, me and another fella in a Raven (1 Nix 2 Ravens), and there we went to kill Blk_Angel. I think I got shot down that nite We honestly thought we could do it and mostly we were surprised that many new pilots wanted to join OEC even though we were at war with a big squad like UZI.

Not so much time after that I basically got a promotion, CM was promoted to XO and I became the #3. I was assigned to run the intel and advise Command of pottential new threats and that was a huge thing to do for me, which of course made me get into the game a lot more. I was later in charge of organizing wings in our Chain of Command and suggesting wing leaders. I did also escort training to many new OEC pilots.

I remember once we needed Dream engines, so I went with my turkey to Hyperial only to find out that UZI was sitting there. OEC had to come down there in force so I could launch 'safely'. Seing OEC doing formation flying was quite a sight.

For me, as a hauler, OEC was a high rush thing... I mean, while they were fighting on some side of the TRI universe, I was heading the other way to get Flash Fires, guns, shields, missiles.. and always during war. Back then, without tags, shooting down a tow with equipment (and not insured lol) was a quite nice victory. I only got shot down 2 times, (RockDoctor during the AQM war, and another by a 2nd account by Sol Navy - the pilot wasnt in sol navy but it was obvious who was behind that hit).

I never got a sol kill while with OEC, but I got 3 quant kills during our daily operations into Quant space. The day EP2 arrived... and just 1 week after... Karash taking the command decision of leaving Jumpgate... that destroyed me. To me, OEC was this great thing and as long as we were there.. we could be able to keep it running. It was Karash decision and as such I had to respect it. Just a week later... =SR= was born.

I basically was a one man squad for a lot of time and I basically used the floor a lot, begging people to join lol. Psyche was my first recruit, but he went TRIC just 1 week into the squad. Then I convinced my old BloodGuard buddies to join me for some time and after the Tangent FM... we basically grew a lot more.

Leading a squad has been a great experience for me, as I have to keep balancing both the enjoyment as squad objectives as well. The majority of my pilots have shown a great deal of respect and honor in all their trades (with some exceptions) and that made me proud as well. My OEC experience got me to basically deal with RP clashes in a tiny aggresive mode, in which if we had to fight someone.. we would hit them first, we would get a temp and kept coming back till we thought that point was well shown.

We have fought at one time with Synergy, Hobo Camp, Raummorder, pilot Disposable and in a less degree with DireCoyote and others. There was never a 'win' factor involved, but basically we stoped fighting them and them.... stoped fighting us.

Then, OEC came back... and most of the BG's went to rejoin, but this time I didnt, because I had 'kids' to take care of now. Today, =StormRaiders= is a very active squad, vast majority carebears, but all able to fight back when required. And the company of my men and women are basically what keeps me in the game (along with all the hard work that Istvan is putting into Jumpgate).

ELP

PS: Yeah, of course, some other Jumpgate friends as well :P

[fluid]

Damnit Romulus, reading your post is making me want to reactivate. But I still need a new joystick and I have other stuff I want to buy first.

As far as memories go, my best memories are the ones from the good ol' days when you couldn't find a sector that was empty and lifeless. Tons of spam on F3 from people arty hunting, flux hunting, or mining. Entering a sector and pressing a greeting macro got hailed by at least half a dozen others. It's amazing to think how populated some of the outlying sectors were even before the advent of the POSs. I often regret that I wasn't introduced to the game earlier than I was because from what I've seen others talk about I missed some great times and lots of great people. I'm glad to see a lot of them reactivating now.

OK fine you know what screw you all I'm gonna go reorder my flight suit. Hope I can find a joystick soon.

[Evolution]

One of my favorite Jumpgate memories also involves a FM. It was a few months after release and we (dsa) were getting the sols rallied up to finish off the FM. You used to be pretty good at that, Griz. Anyway I was in a tow picking up required materials to drop off to the broker at cornea (Zamboni I think). I was never really much of a tow driver. I probably spent 99% of my Jumpgate time in a fighter. In fact I remember squadmates laughing at me when they saw me flying a tow for that FM. So cornea was totally out of conmats and I was on my way back with a load of about half conmats and half something moderately heavy. Apparently there was a string of conmat missions in a row and there were like 10-15 pilots waiting on me at cornea. Griz was giving me **** on TS.. no wait.. it was battlecom back then. I was in a rush to get docked and due to my lack of time in a tow I sorta forgot that the distance your HUD shows between you and the station is calculated from the center of your ship and the center of the station. I flipped around and burned in the opposite direction to stop.. watching my distance to the station and not bothering to look behind me and actually see how close the station was. Obviously the ass end of my cargo container hit the station and all the conmats went up in flames. I remember Griz being a little miffed but all I could do was laugh hysterically. It was an Aubrey moment.

[GrimGriz]

Ahhh an Aubrey moment. That reminds me of my favorite Jumpgate memory ever. Aubrey got on Teamspeak after a long absence. He had apparently been in the hospital for something...I dunno, appendix, kidney stone...something. At some point he was delusional, either from drugs or fever, and there he was IRL muttering "I have to get to my ship! Monk and Griz need my help!"

[QrazyKermi]

My favorite moment was when Synergy (we may have been Dominion at the time of this incident) was busting up a mat farm at Wake. We dump 1500 matcons on the floor and start to leave the sector. We get several F3 complaints about it, to which Lovemonk responded, "We saw Wake was in need of matter converters, so we delivered.... No need to thank us...". I swear I laughed for 10 minutes straight on that last comment.