HI 2 YOU, CHAMPION!
Haven't posted for the longest time because, well, things have been moving here. I got a "new" job, which is replacing my aunt, who got married and moved to Singapore, in directing our company which distribute tires. Lots of bruhaha as I try to bring this hulking, ancient behemoth into the modern age. People change. Things change. But it's harder to change people than to change things. At least with things you can scrap it and get a new one.
My mod is almost done although I'm been lazily working on it as of late. That's because I spent most of my free time playing Shadowbane again. With our unlimited internet (a fucking US$75 a month but it's totally worth it) now we can actually play games without checking our bandwidth useage every night.
They changed Shadowbane quite a lot the past 2 years since I've been absent. First of all, it is now free. Yes, it's completely free to play. They run a stupid ad (from MacDonalds and Dell) at start-up but you can turn it off. So I don't know how and why Ubisoft kept it running when it's not making money. Anyways, I started playing because the SomethingAwful goons started a guild there. Shadowbane is nigh impossible to play when you don't have a guild. Being granted access to one right away and without retarded recruitment process (people are very paranoid about having spies in their membership, with good reasons) made re-playing the game much more appealing.
The first week I played I noticed the changes they made to the game. It's no longer the stupid stack battles of old, where everyone stood on a single spot while someone in voice-chat yell a target's name. "Target BigCowGuy! B-I-G-C-O-W!! Kill him guys! Ok, now target Legoluss! L-E-G-O" etc. Damn retarded. So that's gone. Now a large battle is an actual engagement with groups crashing into one another. Much more fun, just like it was when the game was first released, before players developed the stacking strategy.
Within 3 weeks of playing again, I've experienced the epicness of nation warfare.
The goons called themselves Goon Squad as tradition of all goon-based guilds. We joined a nation (a coalition of guilds) called Spartan Enclave, whose main guild specialized in big beefy fighters wearing golden breastplates and enjoy calling themselves Spartans. There's also another guild in the nation called Cadre Quietus, who somehow hates goons. Probably because they were the main force of the nation before the goons showed up. The Spartans got into a fight with a nation called Chaotic Soldiers and soon started sieging each other's cities. The Goons helped the nation a lot, winning a city for the Spartans. The Spartans were grateful that they moved their capitol and gave the Goonds the old capitol as Goon Squad's own city, now called Goon Town. Cadre Quietus probably got really pissy because of this.
Then Chaotic Soldiers sieged the new capitol of Spartan Enclave. The Goons were ready (I was at the battle) but it was a major disaster. We expected to field at least 30-40 people while the enemy was sighted to have 30. But we were betrayed. Cadre Quietus suddenly reneged and didn't join the defense. Instead they fed information from voice chat to the Chaotic Soldiers. The city's gates were somehow left unlocked so Chaotic Soldiers managed to get in and destroyed the spires (which should've kept the enemy from entering by flying or teleporting). It was a major defeat once they controlled the center of the city and we had no other city nearby to rally in.
The capitol was torn down and the nation in taters. The Spartans disbanded and regrouped at Goon Town, now a tiny, young nation in the middle of huge powerful nations. The other guilds joined other nations to survive but we kept good relations with them. Except for Cadre Quietus, who changed their name to Echoes in Eternity, and actually joined Chaotic Soldiers. Those fucking backstabbers. But the goons kept quiet for 2 weeks while rebuilding and adding more goons to the fold. Then we started moving and taking over small unused cities to gain a good foothold and carve a chunk of territory. A new nation was formed: The Order of Ruin, out of the remnants of the Spartans, with goons still being the core of their military.
Chaotic Soldiers, probably urged by their sub-guilds, especially Echoes in Eternity, were forced to action to stop the growth of this new nation. So they sieged Goon Town, hoping to squash the goons once and for all. But the goons were ready and in full force. In retaliation, the goons sieged ALL 6 of Chaotic Soldiers' cities. The strategy was to make them squabble over which city they must prioritize in defending, as the nation had a lot of guilds with big egos.
Then came the day of battle. The defense of Goon Town was set 1 hour before the the defense of half of the Chaotic Soldiers' cities, then another half in 2 hours. The battle was about to start and the Soldiers appear in force, 32 men strong. The goons, with 35, manuevered around them as they moved into their camp and hit them from behind. It was a massacre with the goons losing 3 people, 2 from their computer crashing. The Soldiers came again shortly after they regrouped and got beaten even worse, with the goons losing only 1. Then they got so desperate they called every abled member even with characters not build for large battles. But most of their members stopped coming and instead went to their own cities to deal with their own sieges. The third wave was an even worse defeat for them. I'm guessing at this point, their nation leaders were yelling at each other as everyone's trying to save their own hides.
We won the defense, then prepped for offensive. The goons picked a city in the region of their capitol (number of cities in a region is limited so you have to tore own down to make a new one or conquered it). It belonged to a small guild but loyal to Chaotic Soldiers and their city is old, with many valuable buildings and assets. The Soldiers mounted a defense after the other sieges on their other cities had been lifted but their number is few, probably less than 20. They probably decided they'd rather not help and die again multiple times to goons now that their cities are safe. The ones that showed up got massacred over and over. The city was breached then the center taken. In the end, they lost that city completely. The guild that owned the city was so disgusted at the lack of help from his fellow sub-guilds, they left the nation. Then the goons planted a town right next door to Chaotic Nation's capitol (now that a spot has been open). It's a direct threat that we are going for their capitol. Chaotic Soldiers' nation leader realized there's no victory from this as they underestimated what the goons are capable of. He surrendered and admitted defeat. The stipulations are his nation must no longer interfere in wars between goons and others, he paid a large ransom and the goons gave him the city we were about to use an a launchpad to his capitol. He then decided to kick out his sub-guilds who didn't help. That includes Echoes in Eternity, who, as of today, stands alone.
Their city will be sieged this weekend. Then the vengeance will be complete.
The epicness comes also from the fact that the goons is not a major power. There's the Rekindled nation, who could field probably 50. There's KAOS, the coalition of Malaysians, Australians, Japanese and Koreans from the now defunct Shadowbane Asia servers. There's the LordKnights, old time players who lost the recent server war (the entire server was split into 2 sides). Then there's the chinese threat. Yes, chinese players from China play this game. And they're known as the CN zerg. Their number is ridiculous and they could field 2-300 in a siege. They decimated the other servers with their massiveness and are currently trying to invade this server. The entire server banded together to kick them out, with old enemies banding together to fight the chinese. They managed to gain a city 2 weeks ago but the entire server descended upon them and razed the city. They're still here but without a city they cannot destroy others' yet.
It's like the goddamn Persian invasion of Greece. The city-states still squabble but when the massive enemy appears, they banded together to crush them. Then resumes to squabble with each other.
EPIC.
My mod is almost done although I'm been lazily working on it as of late. That's because I spent most of my free time playing Shadowbane again. With our unlimited internet (a fucking US$75 a month but it's totally worth it) now we can actually play games without checking our bandwidth useage every night.
They changed Shadowbane quite a lot the past 2 years since I've been absent. First of all, it is now free. Yes, it's completely free to play. They run a stupid ad (from MacDonalds and Dell) at start-up but you can turn it off. So I don't know how and why Ubisoft kept it running when it's not making money. Anyways, I started playing because the SomethingAwful goons started a guild there. Shadowbane is nigh impossible to play when you don't have a guild. Being granted access to one right away and without retarded recruitment process (people are very paranoid about having spies in their membership, with good reasons) made re-playing the game much more appealing.
The first week I played I noticed the changes they made to the game. It's no longer the stupid stack battles of old, where everyone stood on a single spot while someone in voice-chat yell a target's name. "Target BigCowGuy! B-I-G-C-O-W!! Kill him guys! Ok, now target Legoluss! L-E-G-O" etc. Damn retarded. So that's gone. Now a large battle is an actual engagement with groups crashing into one another. Much more fun, just like it was when the game was first released, before players developed the stacking strategy.
Within 3 weeks of playing again, I've experienced the epicness of nation warfare.
The goons called themselves Goon Squad as tradition of all goon-based guilds. We joined a nation (a coalition of guilds) called Spartan Enclave, whose main guild specialized in big beefy fighters wearing golden breastplates and enjoy calling themselves Spartans. There's also another guild in the nation called Cadre Quietus, who somehow hates goons. Probably because they were the main force of the nation before the goons showed up. The Spartans got into a fight with a nation called Chaotic Soldiers and soon started sieging each other's cities. The Goons helped the nation a lot, winning a city for the Spartans. The Spartans were grateful that they moved their capitol and gave the Goonds the old capitol as Goon Squad's own city, now called Goon Town. Cadre Quietus probably got really pissy because of this.
Then Chaotic Soldiers sieged the new capitol of Spartan Enclave. The Goons were ready (I was at the battle) but it was a major disaster. We expected to field at least 30-40 people while the enemy was sighted to have 30. But we were betrayed. Cadre Quietus suddenly reneged and didn't join the defense. Instead they fed information from voice chat to the Chaotic Soldiers. The city's gates were somehow left unlocked so Chaotic Soldiers managed to get in and destroyed the spires (which should've kept the enemy from entering by flying or teleporting). It was a major defeat once they controlled the center of the city and we had no other city nearby to rally in.
The capitol was torn down and the nation in taters. The Spartans disbanded and regrouped at Goon Town, now a tiny, young nation in the middle of huge powerful nations. The other guilds joined other nations to survive but we kept good relations with them. Except for Cadre Quietus, who changed their name to Echoes in Eternity, and actually joined Chaotic Soldiers. Those fucking backstabbers. But the goons kept quiet for 2 weeks while rebuilding and adding more goons to the fold. Then we started moving and taking over small unused cities to gain a good foothold and carve a chunk of territory. A new nation was formed: The Order of Ruin, out of the remnants of the Spartans, with goons still being the core of their military.
Chaotic Soldiers, probably urged by their sub-guilds, especially Echoes in Eternity, were forced to action to stop the growth of this new nation. So they sieged Goon Town, hoping to squash the goons once and for all. But the goons were ready and in full force. In retaliation, the goons sieged ALL 6 of Chaotic Soldiers' cities. The strategy was to make them squabble over which city they must prioritize in defending, as the nation had a lot of guilds with big egos.
Then came the day of battle. The defense of Goon Town was set 1 hour before the the defense of half of the Chaotic Soldiers' cities, then another half in 2 hours. The battle was about to start and the Soldiers appear in force, 32 men strong. The goons, with 35, manuevered around them as they moved into their camp and hit them from behind. It was a massacre with the goons losing 3 people, 2 from their computer crashing. The Soldiers came again shortly after they regrouped and got beaten even worse, with the goons losing only 1. Then they got so desperate they called every abled member even with characters not build for large battles. But most of their members stopped coming and instead went to their own cities to deal with their own sieges. The third wave was an even worse defeat for them. I'm guessing at this point, their nation leaders were yelling at each other as everyone's trying to save their own hides.
We won the defense, then prepped for offensive. The goons picked a city in the region of their capitol (number of cities in a region is limited so you have to tore own down to make a new one or conquered it). It belonged to a small guild but loyal to Chaotic Soldiers and their city is old, with many valuable buildings and assets. The Soldiers mounted a defense after the other sieges on their other cities had been lifted but their number is few, probably less than 20. They probably decided they'd rather not help and die again multiple times to goons now that their cities are safe. The ones that showed up got massacred over and over. The city was breached then the center taken. In the end, they lost that city completely. The guild that owned the city was so disgusted at the lack of help from his fellow sub-guilds, they left the nation. Then the goons planted a town right next door to Chaotic Nation's capitol (now that a spot has been open). It's a direct threat that we are going for their capitol. Chaotic Soldiers' nation leader realized there's no victory from this as they underestimated what the goons are capable of. He surrendered and admitted defeat. The stipulations are his nation must no longer interfere in wars between goons and others, he paid a large ransom and the goons gave him the city we were about to use an a launchpad to his capitol. He then decided to kick out his sub-guilds who didn't help. That includes Echoes in Eternity, who, as of today, stands alone.
Their city will be sieged this weekend. Then the vengeance will be complete.
The epicness comes also from the fact that the goons is not a major power. There's the Rekindled nation, who could field probably 50. There's KAOS, the coalition of Malaysians, Australians, Japanese and Koreans from the now defunct Shadowbane Asia servers. There's the LordKnights, old time players who lost the recent server war (the entire server was split into 2 sides). Then there's the chinese threat. Yes, chinese players from China play this game. And they're known as the CN zerg. Their number is ridiculous and they could field 2-300 in a siege. They decimated the other servers with their massiveness and are currently trying to invade this server. The entire server banded together to kick them out, with old enemies banding together to fight the chinese. They managed to gain a city 2 weeks ago but the entire server descended upon them and razed the city. They're still here but without a city they cannot destroy others' yet.
It's like the goddamn Persian invasion of Greece. The city-states still squabble but when the massive enemy appears, they banded together to crush them. Then resumes to squabble with each other.
EPIC.