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The Fall of ShadowGate

PostPosted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 12:13 am
by Shrapnel
Today i read about the demise of my village, its conquerors thread can be found here: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=20374

I will tell you the story of my village, as little as it may matter, i feel it will add to the rich history of Salem.

The story started when i invited 3 of my friends to come join me and my village leader, who shall remain nameless, i helped my friends learn the game while the leader watched and reaped the benefits of our work. He never played and only logged in to check on our progress. We didnt realize it at the time, but we where essentially unpaid slaves.

As we progressed in the game, we realized what was happening, we where hunting and gathering and handing up rares and such to the village leader, who had been collecting and using them for his own benefit, making things for himself and passing down the scraps he no longer needed. One day i was granted access to his home and allowed to view his vast collection.. when i told my 3 friends about it they became angry and complained that he was keeping all the good stuff for himself. This is when the revolt started.

The following days we came up with a plan to talk to the leader, hoping that we could reason with him about sharing the wealth so we may all prosper and grow as a great village. We went to him with a plan to reorganize the power and governance of the village, he promply refused and told us that this is how it works in Salem, and that sharing the wealth would weaken the village as a whole. We gave up and continued to play as usual, or so it seemed..

The following weeks we formed a plan to escape the tyranny of our leader, we smuggled resources out of the village and stockpiled them far away, all while keeping appearances normal. There where moments where we thought our leader had found out about our plan, very tense situations where he logged in while we where in the middle of siphoning materials to our stockpile, to this day we still dont know if he knew before it actually happened.

The day came where we finally had enough. We did our final haul. We made sure to keep track of our progress through the past weeks, keeping track how many boards, wrought, and other materials we made for the village, and so we took everything that was rightfully ours(minus his 'Keep' and its vault.), leaving only the resources he had created himself. We didn't steal a single thing that was not ours. Once the final inventory was hauled to our stockpile, we dropped Kin from him and set him to Red. The next time he logged in he would come back to a village as if we had never joined it in the first place.

At our stockpile, we had gathered the resources needed to build exactly what we had planned from the start, we made a spreadsheet for the base and planned out every permanent structure we could. The village was erected in a matter of days. Shadow Gate was formed.

( Progress shortly after Shadowgate was founded: https://prnt.sc/ayzikr The first brick walls where up at this point, but render distance did not cover that far.)

The village prospered for months and months, we made strides in progress and enjoyed the game in a new light, leading our own village as co-leaders, equals, and friends above all else.

( Our first Wrought Iron run after founding the village: https://prnt.sc/ills5x i think we did around 200-300 wrought, the biggest run we had done in the game at that point. )

Alas, it was not meant to last.. one of our friend ('D' in the above pic.) started becoming more and more inactive, IRL issues had him on a dark path that he still follows to this day, none of his friends able to reach out to him and help. He eventually never logged in again, and then there was 3.

The 3 of us powered on, eventually finding a couple more people to join us, but everyone knows how hard it is to keep someones interest in the game after having them join you and hand them everything, that was a big mistake on our part, they didnt stick around.

Progress started to slow when we ran into a problem with maintaining the base, our member who held the stall went on vacation for a while and forgot to pay for the stall rent, we lost it and our main source of income. We struggled to pay the claim by selling to the NPC stalls, this put a major strain on us, we started arguing and where no longer enjoying the game.

One day, it all came to a crossroad that changed the village forever. We where online redoing the village claim and i had noticed that one of the border stones was missing, leaving a major hole on our defenses. I asked the guy ( 'L' in the above pic ) working on it what had happened and he said he was working on it, i explained that it was a very bad thing to leave open, and he disconnected from voice chat immediately. I figured he just didnt want to hear it and was going to go play a different game to cool down, but he didnt log off.

Moments later, he was running at me in his combat gear, swinging wildly, what felt like ages passed as i struggled to reach my own home to get my combat clothes on. I stayed inside after remembering that we locked our own houses,i was trying to reason with him, but he wasn't having any of it. I set him to white so it would freeze him on the claim and prevent him from doing any damage while i tried talking to him, to no avail. He turned criminal acts on and went to damage as much as possible before passing out. After hours of trying to communicate with him, i made the hardest choice ive had to make in Salem, i murdered what i thought was a longtime friend, it turns out he was only using me to advance his own plans, and not just in Salem. Right after the knife plunged into his character, he blocked me on every communication and game ive ever played with him, i have not seen or spoken to him since, good riddance, though not without a pang of sadness. And then there was 2.

( The moment it happened, https://prnt.sc/ilm25g + Scalp https://prnt.sc/ilm31x )

After explaining what happened to my remaining friend ('I' In the "Wrought Run" pic.), the friendship between me and my last village mate skyrocketed, we where invigorated to continue our work, and find new people to share the now 2 vacant slots in our village. We progressed together, but slowly burnt ourselves out.. none of our friends where interested in joining us, and maintaining the village was becoming a chore that we increasingly despised, we started playing other games and grew less and less attached to our village.

One day, we just stopped playing. I have been logging in monthly or so to check on the walls, seemingly nothing happening. Until today.
Today i logged in to the message ive dreaded for years, and to say that im not upset would be a lie, however im not as upset as i thought i would be, its closer to a relieved sadness.

Thank you, battleslayer888, for being the one to close the final chapter of my adventure. May you enjoy the loot and continue on.

Thank you Salem community, for the ups and downs over the years, Thank you Jc/Marp for maintaining this game, im glad to see progress picking back up lately, keep it up! I wish all of you the best of luck.

Signing off, for now. o7
- Shrapnel

Re: The Fall of ShadowGate

PostPosted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 12:29 am
by battleslayer888
It makes sense as to why that plot was extremely wealthy, as the rest of the village seemed mediocre. I applaud your struggles and hardwork, and could possibly work a deal with you, to hopefully keep you playing. You seem like a nice guy to play with, possibly can redo everything and make you the leader this time of a town.

Re: The Fall of ShadowGate

PostPosted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 12:32 am
by Taipion
nice read, unexpected drama

Farewell! :-)

...but you'll probably come back someday. ;)

Re: The Fall of ShadowGate

PostPosted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 12:32 am
by Heffernan
Taipion wrote:...but you'll probably come back someday. ;)


they all do.

Re: The Fall of ShadowGate

PostPosted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 12:39 am
by gorniksam
oh wow, really nice to reading your story
just feeling sorry about people you have met and this guy which was using you . hope you gonna come back to saslem one day and would have even more fun than before :)

Re: The Fall of ShadowGate

PostPosted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 1:05 am
by Dodo
wow, not a bad story at all. You'll be back, sooner or later as they say... i know i did after a lengthy pause XD

Re: The Fall of ShadowGate

PostPosted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 3:10 am
by toddesloan
Restart. You can run around the map and rebuild that town off salvaged bases in prob 2 weeks if you play hard.

Re: The Fall of ShadowGate

PostPosted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 3:10 am
by battleslayer888
I wish JC/Marp will see this and realize the games chores get repetitive, and for some people as here it becomes boring. I personally make new adventures for myself to keep the game interesting, but in the PVE side, it lacks luster in certain areas. What, I wish I knew myself, and this seems to be why JC/Marp struggle with.

Re: The Fall of ShadowGate

PostPosted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 3:11 am
by battleslayer888
toddesloan wrote:Restart. You can run around the map and rebuild that town off salvaged bases in prob 2 weeks if you play hard.

I offered him a new start, hopefully from which I can give him new interest into the game.