Hc history
A brief history of Hardcore BatMUD
When HCBat first came online, not much eq was made as everybody was running around in whatever gear was easy to get. As people became better equipped and organized, they started exploring eq mobs. Many brave pioneers lost their lives in these early days to trying eq mobs and exploring. TP prizes were offered to people first reaching high levels of exp (Harambikkel took the grand prize) - and for the first full party wipe.
The coin of instant death was still around. You could flip the coin and either gain TP in accordance with your exp worth or die instantly. Many people both died and triumphed with this coin until it was removed, after people abused the barbarian arena to flip the coin. You didn't actually die in the arena if your flip failed.
Some of the first major societies/groups to emerge were tuska+, tkt+, rooster+.
In the early days, popular eq included merchant made dukonium stuff and multislot armours, spider GM gear, blood-drinker axes and quest/event gear. Anything that could be killed with relatively little risk got killed as soon as people who knew how to safely kill those monsters joined the HCBat community. Top eq at the time consisted of Tom's Coats, Zoo eq, LoC blades (which still are amazing), Templar GM eq, Barbarian leader weapon and so forth. Sable axes and Oogga maces were the top gettable weapons for a long time.
By 2004, level 100 characters were already dying regularly. Around this time began one organized effort to kill new high end monsters with the co-operation of some wizards who fixed monsters and put others into the game. One of the first truly challenging mobs to die was Stifsim. Lear was also killed around this time. Burglefloogah was killed in 2006, as was Inra (who has not been killed since then, as of writing this in 2013). Eidilon, Balrog, Hera, Jane, Witch-king, Tom, Citadel, Patrick, Necropolis and so on were being done regularly. It continued in this fashion for a few years and fortunately more wizards who were willing to enable and fix eq mobs emerged.
The economy fast became saturated with eq from these runs and players were hungry for more. Soon, a next generation of players, now relatively well equipped, went on to new challenges. A very hard Thanatos with the first eq customized for HCBat died in 2011. Kitiara eventually got a Kerbholz. Kizarwexius and his eq were tuned for HC and killed repeatedly, uptuned and killed repeatedly again. Lesser demon with customized eq was added and killed. Felidae also had her eq tuned for HC and started dying. Rechendak was killed. TP prizes were offered for first kills of legendary monsters. Nun Gatekeeper died repeatedly during a period when controlled motion could be used with certain high-damage skills. Juggelo and Moght are to thank for most of these new mobs.
At this point, another generation of both new and old players, now extremely well equipped, started routinely doing heroic kills never seen before. Henry Amberley was killed several times. Dag Dag started dying. The hardest monsters were now being done with little resistance, but wizards kept adding new challenges as soon as previous ones were conquered. As of writing this, the new monsters tuned for HC that have not yet been killed include Moratar Cain, Asmodeus and Baal-Naygash.
There is plenty still to be done and many dedicated players still playing the game. Wizards co-operate a lot with players regarding eq mobs that are undoable for assorted reasons. Lots of new features have been added or tuned to fit HC since the early days. Gameplay is still fast and it is somewhat easy to get task points for active players, so the most active people are still getting more powerful.
