SmiteSmithy

This is the soundtrack to Banished. A SimCity-Tropico-Civilization-esque game that never really caught the eye of anybody in particular, and still lives on mostly in its modding community, and the obsessed people that still try and optimize the most efficient ways of survival. Some of the tracks might be a bit generic, but some of them create a feeling and mood that I think aren't too common. Well-orchestrated, well-layered, some gems for sure.

Hey Ross, I think I've got something that flies under the flag of a "...determined and motivated psycho." A good couple of years ago my friend and I played an MMO by the name of RuneScape. It's currently suffered a somewhat painful fall from grace among its most dedicated players, but still stands as THE free MMO; at least, one you can play in your browser at work all day. The game had developed some powerful clans shortly after the official introduction of the clan system. My friend and I were still in high school at the time and given our extremely lazy scheduling that year, had ample time to pour into the game. We decided to try and join a clan, seeing as we could do a lot together, but the recently added "Clan Wars" game was completely blocked off in certain ways to groups without high numbers. To say nothing of the benefits of working as a massive clean-up crew. Hell, even the basic level bone drops were useful to a noob back then. So we joined up with a mid-ladder, so-so clan. This is the point at which everything starts to lean downhill. The clan members were alright people, a couple of jerks, couple of good guys, some people who took looting a little too seriously, some people who just hopped on every once in a while when they felt like it- the usual mix of people in an MMO. The Clan Leader and his Stooges were something altogether different. He didn't request, he demanded the members of his clan use the "Bow" emote whenever he walked by them. His Stooges would take "tithes" from the lowest members of the clan, usually the newest recruits. Those that refused were immediately wiped clean from the clan listings and were forced to move on. You wouldn't think that'd be such a big deal, right? Everybody would move on to another clan and forget this asshole the second this started. Turns out he had discovered an incredible system for multi-way stakes combat in the PvP area. He'd actually wager the literal maximum amount of in-game currency on his clan being able to kill and defeat the enemy clan in the PvP areas. He ran a private forum for the upper rungs on the ladder of RuneScape clans, and even had some of the Mods in on it too. When the money pot was completely full, extremely high value items, consumables, and other commodities got tossed into the pot. However, the group-oriented combat style the Clan Leader and his Stooges operated on hinged on complete obedience. It was a work of true mastery if I've ever seen it, an understanding of player intelligence that is forged only through multiple years of constant play. Essentially the first phase of the fight would go down like this: - the mages would all freeze the rangers, warriors, and other mages in combat if they could, to keep the fight from getting out of hand - the rangers would pick off the mages if they could, to keep them from retaliating effectively - the warriors would stomp up and cut the enemy rangers to ribbons, if they could manage to avoid getting frozen So you'd think, "Duh, of course. Everybody knows that basic crap, easy unit tactics." You're totally right. But at this point the Clan Leader's genius shone through. He'd purposefully keep some clan members underleveled before combat. On top of that, he'd give those clan members some of the mid-tier expensive items to hold in their inventories. This sly bastard had figured out that the greediest of the enemy would be sprinting at the front, and eager to pick up any so-so loot that dropped the second it dropped. He'd let the underleveled fodder take the first wave of damage to engage the second phase: - unoccupied mages, warriors and rangers focus down those moving towards the corpse of the friendly clan member - those on the opposing side of the battle would consume whatever extra potions they had, fire up their buffs, and do as much damage as they could - the front line on both sides shifts so that the warriors must stand in front of the rangers, then the mages at the back Every clan member death was a calculated move in this mad man's chess game. He wanted to wipe out the more aggressive and powerful enemy players to chance fleeing on the enemy side. Every item dropped was accounted for in a book we never got to see. He kept the clan at mid-tier because it brought less attention to the clan, allowed easy entry to fresh mid-level recruits, and kept the richer higher-level players from attempted to steal his spotlight or steal clan members from him. He got fresh blood, fresh gold, fresh recruits, and stayed exactly where he wanted. You could call it strategic racketeering, except it wasn't against any black-and-white rules at the time. However, the Stooges were relentless in their pursuit of honoring their Leader. They'd actually pressured him enough to ensure that Roleplay was mandatory, not a fun thing. If you wanted to talk to them, you'd have to hire somebody to pretend to be a messenger, to walk to another room, trade them a piece of parchment, then Private Message the Stooge regarding whatever it is you wanted to speak about. The Stooge would either agree or decline, with some delightfully snarky elitist response. Members got very tired of this but over time it became tolerable. Where do my friend and I come in? Right about here. We were so completely fed up with this taxing, demanding behavior. Were we in the right to be fed up? Probably. Should we just have left the clan entirely instead of strike out against the tyranny we faced? More than likely. Did we do the former? Oh hell no, we chose the latter. We were high school students with too much time and a new reason to spend it. And spend it we did. We would stay up late and wake up early solely to train our accounts. School became a barebones thought- we'd go through the motions but it lacked any attention anymore, we became totally CONSUMED with the idea of teaching those bastards they couldn't do whatever they wanted and have everybody else pay the price for it. Weekends were spent entirely in our rooms as we poured hour after hour into leveling. My friend almost had to go to a doctor for the pain in his hand, but I convinced him to switch hands instead. We physically timed experience-farming methods for the objectively fastest ways to level up; damn whatever forum posts swore were the fastest ways to get experience. It came to the point at which we debated while playing the significance for half a second, and had to call up another mutual friend on Skype to do the math as to whether or not it'd be worth it to spend the time moving to the new area, to save that half a second per experience gain. All the while maintaining the best cover we could, and attempting to get on the good side of the Stooges while we could stomach it. "Yes my liege!" was one of their favorites, and we made sure to pour on the sugar should they stroll around our corner of the fight. Still on the clan list, still attending, still fighting. Eventually it came time to prove what we were worth. We had built up our characters to such a degree that they were adept at all three methods of combat; melee ranged and magic. Obviously it's difficult to use all three at once without significant time spent switching combat styles, but we thought it better to cover all bases than sit idly by and underestimate our enemy. In order to keep away any suspicious questions as to just how fast we rose in levels, we would merely state that we were on vacation at the moment, and had nothing better to do, or were recently fired or something; any excuse to change the subject or get them off our backs. We were about as nonchalant as two teenage boys on the internet are capable of being, but we weren't found out. The day came when the pot was huge. Full stack of maximum gold, top tier everything. If it was cheap, there was a lot of it. If it was expensive, it was there. This completely compounded all of the problems and risks the clan would face normally in battle. Every single death would have to have HUGE cash or items/gear on them to make the kill worth diving for. Only the highest of the highest loot, only the grandest weapon, only the most spectacular gold would do. The clan couldn't afford to bait any more deaths than they could possibly manage to even the odds between them and the enemy. Even so it would be incredibly risky. My friend and I immediately hush on Skype as we're briefed on the battle: this was our moment, the time that we'd waited so long for. The Clan Leader and his Stooges made sure to state that today no mistakes would be allowed in battle. This one was for real, the stakes were high, and our standing as a clan would hinge on our performance today. Stragglers and deserters would be removed and banned from the clan the moment they faltered; no explanations, no appeals, nothing. You fuck up, you're done. And, those that succeeded would be rewarded with ample spoils; even the lowliest of the recruits would get a fat wad of cash to throw around this time. Their warnings fell on two sets of deaf ears. Hearts pounding, minds racing, mouths anxiously babbling over Skype, we followed our clan into battle. It commences. But this time? We do things a little bit differently. Today, we chose to do something that nobody had foreseen. We turned. Our first targets were the Mages that didn't use their freezing spell yet. We spec'd them; a "spec" is to use the special ability of your weapon in combination with your extremely high stats to one-shot your opponent. We spec the two closest Mages. Then, we immediately turn to the two closest Rangers and shred them to bits as well. By this time the Clan Leader and Stooges fully caught on. The Clan chat was ablaze with panicked messages, WHAT ARE THEY DOING???!!! and the like. In an instant my friend and I bolted for the hills. As the battle faded from our field of vision we saw the enemy clan really start to tear into our clan. Some deserted, some stayed behind. We logged out shortly after we saw some deserters coming towards us; the last thing we wanted was some poor innocent recruit to spoil the adrenaline rush. Two cans of ice-cold Diet Coke in shaking, hyped up teenage hands to celebrate. In one blink of an eye, trillions were lost that day. Some of the poorest of the poor skyrocketed to the richest of the rich, in one foul swoop. As of right now? That forum's gone, and so is the Clan Leader, along with the clan itself. I'd give dates and name names, but I'm still a little afraid of a late-night knock at my door.