Removed my LE at 0/2... these are my memoirs...

[William Antrim]

So I have a new gen-tank char that I am currently levelling. I am doing this slow time to see how different the changes are with the LE in the current patch. I have had this guy for a few months but never got into levelling him seriously until the last month or so.

I started out at 0/2 and removed my le about 20 minutes into the game. I went to all of the popular spots for levelling (as part of my experiment) and I got some team invites, a few ppu buffs and even some noob guns off a couple of guys.

Between /20 and /30 I went on a pking rampage of anyone within 10 levels of me. Above and below. I never ganked anyone in a sewer or dungeon area but I did shoot about 95% of my kills in Pepper Park/Industrial Zone/the A and B zones in the wastelands. I went to MB and got repeatedly killed by a Crahn ganking team - I call them this as they had a ppu with them but werent at an op fight. They rezzed me and gave me money and told me to put the LE in... I said no thanks I would rather die. This is more fun!

I did some of my epic. I went to regants. I pked some more people there. Again I was at /35 by this point. I got into a fight with a guy from a rival clan to my own (in Pepper Park) and he came back with a capped wocced spy friend. I fought this guy. The Wocced spy and I made him zone into Industrial Zone whilst I had 95 health. My heart beat so fast it was practically in my mouth!

I pked some capped City Admin Tradeskillers. I got some abusive dms from them and went about my day.

I went to regants some more to level having acquired what I thought was quite a reputation by now. I pked some more people on the road down there. I expected some retaliation but none came.

I continued levelling some more in other places and found some more people to kill, taking care to make sure that my targets where always within a strict criteria - within 10 levels below my rank or any rank above and neutral or enemy faction. All I used was Laser Cannons all the way through and full energy armour regardless of where I was levelling (for pvp).

I went back to regants again and carried on levelling. I left people alone here for the most part and tried to be polite and courteous unless they were clanned and enemy to me and then I left them alone or fought with them.

I levelled with another tank from an enemy faction at one point and some healing light spy came and pked him. I tried to fight the spy but he stealthed. Whilst in stealth the spy said to me "do you want to die as well?"

"Yes PLEASE!" I said to his corpse as he was lying on the deck and I had about 15 health left! Cue heart in mouth moment again!

I carried on levelling in regants. I pked some more capped players who were droning on occasion or some APUs as well. I killed some spies and some tanks too. All at my level or higher. I had a blast.

As I have got closer and closer to cap I have begun to become more of a target for capped players. As I am anti city the pro city lot come and gank me more now than ever. However I have managed to run and hide a few times and only actually died 3 times to players so far in my career.

However this is by no means a brag thread. I am not uber. If anything I am distinctly average at pvp. I just found something amazing in this game. That feeling you get when you see a flash come up on your local list and you dont know who it is or what faction they are, or better still you recognise the name and you KNOW there is a fight coming. I lost that in the last few years of playing nc.

I play alone alot more now than ever before due to RL committments that myself and my clan mates have suffered this year. However it has not stopped being fun. I think that this last patch has livened up nc so much more than it ever was before. It is actually dangerous again to go out in the wastes as you do not know who is coming to kill you at any point. Just last night on my PE a spy came up on me with a first love whilst I had some mad copbots and spiderbots shooting at me. We fought and I got him to start running away with very little health before the mobs finished me off. Yeah ok he survived and I died but so what. We fought and we fought well and we both had fun. He was probably a cowardly noob for shooting me in the back but hey, we were enemies!

I wanted to share these thoughts with you as I am trying to show a positive side to NC.

My tank is now levelling on firemobs up in the northern sectors of the wastelands and he has still not quite reached /50 yet but I am having a ball. It is very possible to compete in pvp with high level players. Yes I get shredded by woc spies with Berettas but hey looking at these forums lately, don't we all!

Anyway this was fun for me, it was fun to recall and write about and even more fun to play. Sadly I did not get the retribution I figured would come in many respects but all the same a few times people came to fight me.

I loved it.

This is how Neocron used to be. The only thing that seems to be missing for me from the first time I levelled a char was all the backpacks on the floor in the various zones and people stopping fighting at 10% health to pull a shitty weapon out in case they dropped it!

Still you can't win em all eh.

Anyone else got any thoughts?

[Dropout]

Nice with a positive thread about no using LE, while leveling..
And it does sound like great fun tbh!

Sadly Im usually leveling as FA, so the amount of red people I meet is extremely low ( */57 spy, been leveling in the Wastes since about */45 - Only met 2 reds lol).
I rarely pull out my LE till about level */45 though - Yeah yeah I know "carebear!"

[SynC_187]

Brilliant read.

This is how I remember NC1. I pulled my LE out as soon as I started, not realising the implications, and I had the most fun I've ever had in NC.

I level my chars with LE in most of the time now, not because I don't want the fun, but because I am always in a hurry to level and don't want the inconveniece of going back to p1 for pokes, before returning to hunting spot. It's a shame I guess that there is such a rush to the end game, that we skip a lot of the fun of the game iteself.

I rush to level tradeskillers up as droners because no-one wants a TL100 contructor or researcher, and it's not viable to level by tradeskilling. When I played NC1 it took me months to cap my first char (an APU), but it was great fun and by the time I did I had so many rares that I was able to set up all my other chars too.

[eNTi]

sounds like fun. i'll probably try that too.

I rush to level tradeskillers up as droners because no-one wants a TL100 contructor or researcher, and it's not viable to level by tradeskilling. When I played NC1 it took me months to cap my first char (an APU), but it was great fun, and by the time I did, I had so many rares that I was able to set up all my other chars too.

maybe ot, but i don't agree. leveling by trade skilling is very much viable. it just takes longer. i built all my own stuff with my cst and did tons of cst missions. you get good xp and a lot of money too. it's not fun by any stretch of the imagination though.

there's also quite some people looking for low level consters every day.

[Brammers]

...
I levelled with another tank from an enemy faction at one point and some healing light spy came and pked him. I tried to fight the spy but he stealthed. Whilst in stealth the spy said to me "do you want to die as well?"
...

Hmm this runner sounds like someone I've ran into a few times. Is he a rapper? (Goggle the name and you will see what I mean!)

[Maine]

Hmm this runner sounds like someone I've ran into a few times. Is he a rapper? (Goggle the name and you will see what I mean!)

Inspectah Deck

[Brammers]

I wasn't going to name him, but yeah him.

[William Antrim]

No. If you know the name of any of my chars you can link the other names to all of them.

If you watch cowboy films you will know what I mean.

[Britney]

You pulled your LE while leveling to PVP? Unheard of!

[Bozz-Von Mel]

No. If you know the name of any of my chars you can link the other names to all of them.

If you watch cowboy films you will know what I mean.

Is Yosemite Sam considered a cowboy ?

[Doc Holliday]

Bozz be trollin

As the other tank in the story who got ganked I can confirm all of the above as being a true story.

[nabbl]

I leveled all my characters (5) like that. Even my APU...

This game is a lot more fun when you really interact with the world and experience all of the pleasure it can give.

[Kame]

Inspectah Deck doesn't spit some weak shit before killing runners.

[Dope]

This is how I play as well. (applause)
This is how the game is intended to be played, imho. Just maybe with a little more factional co-operation.

[Bozz-Von Mel]

Bozz be trollin

As the other tank in the story who got ganked I can confirm all of the above as being a true story.

Yes, but the question still stands. This does sound like loads of fun though.