I played Grendel's Revenge (Hence my forum name) 20 years ago as my first MUD. I was introduced to The Eternal City by another player in Grendel's Revenge a couple weeks later because GR was brand new and there wasn't much to it not to mention all the bugs. I was about 14 years old and TEC seemed very interesting from what was described to me.

I spent about a week rolling characters for that inhuman speed and dexterity, Cineran knifer, which wasn't long because I probably made dozens of free accounts a day plus the advice of my friend helped. What my friend did not tell me before I gambled in the CharGen was how grueling the grinding was. You had to hit the dummy for weeks/months before you could even think about fighting in the alleys behind Septima's or maybe even rats in the sewers. Pickpocketing was pretty much the same now, hide somewhere and palm that coin until you can rank em enough for a good success which also should've took a long time because sp gains were static at like .01 sp or something. The game was a lot more hardcore back in the day where permadeath was really common in the war between the thieves and constables.

There was an event where everyone had to get on a boat to a new island, but while at the docks people were told there's a weight limit. I don't know why I decided not to go, but I remember how happy I was to grab the stuff people left behind, and wandering the steps later picking up everything that got tossed out of an inn room. I'll never forget that Flowing black sagum with silver serpents. (Not too sure on the color of the serpents)

Naturally, I didn't want to invest so much time into a character that could be lost easily, so I moved on and quit after about Ten days of the game where a week was spent in the CharGen. This was 20 years ago and I was young, so my memories of what the game was like and the numbers could be wrong, but this is and was the impression I had of TEC in 2002. Grindy as hell and too much plotting in PMs out of game. (The Old Java Clients was pretty, but font was awful.)

I'm not a hardcore min/max player with a spreadsheet, but I don't like it when the first thing you do in TEC is to roll the dice determine your character's fate in the game. There was no way to raise attributes then and they were more important than any grinding you do. Ah, it was also the first role-playing enforced game which also didn't help.

Ten years later, the end of 2011 around Christmas, with some free time after college and between jobs. Feeling nostalgic for old school online RPGs, Grendel's Revenge was what I thought about first, but sadly the game was empty. Luckily the next door neighbor TEC was not and it still had a pretty decent sized player base, so I decided to give it another try. I had a little bit more role-playing experience under my belt from other games at this point and was feeling pretty confident. I scoured the skotos forums and all the player websites I could find, but there wasn't any new lore/information that I found compared to the first time. Just help files and a few player sites with more game mechanics, and the forums didn't contain any lore because everything must stay IG even after ten years.

Mechanically though 2011 TEC was vastly different compared to 2002 TEC. A tutorial, newbie island, a Ludus, player built roads, a lot more skillsets, stat skills, more items, more inns, brokers, locksmiths, and more areas. So much more. The game would've been perfect if they had changed the CharGen which was worst than the 2002 one. The best you could get was exceptional and it was even harder to roll for compared to the inhuman speed before. The max speed at outstanding (after running courses) was 1 second faster compared to the stat skill (reflexes), but because of that 1 second difference having the stat was so much stronger. No idea what happened to the characters who had the inhuman stats before the change.

SP Cycle made grinding slightly easier if you only logged in once a week for the 250, but minimal gains is comparable to the 2002 grind except in 2002 you could script one move hitting the dummy whereas now you've got a 5 move rotation against mobs and have to try/play the game.

2011 TEC was no longer the hardcore pvp game like it was in the past. You have to ask if you can permakill someone, and there was even a time limit, so if they knew about it and not log in, it was a waste of RPs which meant every character is basically immortal now.

Character Generator/Stats, SP cycle/gains/Skill Ranks, and Carebear TEC these three things basically means all veterans who stuck with the game over the years are basically Gods. New Players who join the game will forever have to praise and stay on their good side or become part of their legend. (Four things actually since they've played together for so long they've got each others back IRL.)

Most of the info was from reading forums and talking to people IG because after re-rolling in the CharGen for weeks with no success. I gave up and went with a non-com broker to RP and just play the game made a bunch of money, but non-com skills aren't that fleshed out with only side jobs and low ranks required it got boring. Left the game after a few weeks because I didn't like God's plan for my character.

Also Brokering Is Dumb.

Here we are in 2021, having been stuck home with one school age distance learning child and a toddler because of a deadly pandemic, I needed some me time. Been back for three weeks, and instead of scouring the forums. I scoured the unofficial discord. Found that 20 years of people ranting in the old forums gone including all the history and information. Some of the same topics from 2011 unchanged pretty much CharGen/Skills/Carebear not sure about the fourth one haven't dived deep enough yet. Probably will not. There are some differences between now and the past 2011 TEC, but besides some bells and whistles the core is pretty much unchanged in the last decade. One thing that really needs to be fixed is all those lost names because of the character generator every time you type one in its gone.

Deja vu hit me at the toga, seeing the same character doing the same thing they did 10 years ago was pretty funny.

Reading/Listening on discord to people complain about New Players being screwed and others replying the same things was interesting. Having paid attention to the US Politics over the last year cause of the free time. I can't help, but compare the two. Conservative Veterans vs Liberal Newbies. I probably got it wrong, but if this part breaks any rules please delete it. Just a joke.

PS. Microsoft's Email Outlook.com Live.com Hotmail.com Ect.. Completely blocks all emails from ce@skotos.net and wordpress@eternalcitygame.com which is why I lost the forum and account name GiantTheBugbear.

Edit: PPS. It was fun to write up a wall again