Deranged Disaster
601
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Posted - 2016.07.15 13:22:00 -
[1] - Quote
I took inspiration from Lhughes' post and decided to make a timeline.
I started DUST 514 in closed beta after being offered a key by my at the time clan-mates, Pro Hic Immortalis. At the time, the ROFL alliance was a prominent figure. Needless to say, I was terrible at the game. I recall cursing out people who used dropship spam a million times and over. I distinctively remember wanting to sign up for the closed beta tournament only to get turned down by the ROFL alliance because I "was too ****". I'm a guy who sometimes takes things personally and decided to step my game up. I spent a night literally crunching numbers and came up with a killer fit as well as went to ridiculous extends to practice my aim and tracking.
After the wipe, PHI had our own corporation and I went on to be able to catch up SP wise. Pro Hic Immortalis was a casual/competitive blurred line clan and dealt with some internal drama after we began getting burnt out. Fahrenheit the big fat biker dude who I thank for every single moment of laughter I had with him took lead and but by that time I was out of the corporation with a couple more members to form our own standalone thing. Between that time, I was approached by several corps but Sha Kharn's recruiting seemed the most appealing. With his majestic promises of ponies and magical friendship, I decided to join Seraphim Initiative. By that time, I became pretty good at the game and was able to melt through plenty of people or have very known figures run away from me.
I can still remember the first day I tuned into the corporation comms with my microphone and everyone seemed so friendly, funny and welcoming. While PHI was good, SI offered me an environment of a gaming group that I have never really felt. I started off as a simple footsoldier for Seraphim before sneaking into the leading cliques with Sha Kharn, Crorat, Crafty, Lhughes, Edrot and plenty more. Soon enough I got insight into the plans of the corporation and fully understood Sha Kharn's real ability. The dude was such a mastermind that he orchestrated a full on take-down of PC successfully. We held a monstrous amount of planets as the Cronos alliance and were the big dog for more than a while. I still recall joining PC battle after PC battle and BEGGING to play public matches to cool off. We went through plenty of wars and survived.
Sha Kharn decided to make a nice little group of people who would create alts and join other corporations who he thought may evolve into an issue. I won't name which ones but we were everywhere. It was an elaborate network of people working in the shadows. Chances are, if you were a major corporation, we had an alt in your ranks. Time passed and we reigned supreme over and over until we eventually encountered EoN which I never took seriously or as a threat until I saw them attack. We didn't have as many solid players as they did per battle at this point since our top game roster was cut short and we had to blend in average with top skilled players. Having already been burned out by the recent wars and inter-alliance conflicts, we held strong for a while until we ended up having to wake up at 4 am to fight PC battles. By that time, the Cronos alliance had been cut short due to inactivity or breaking off corporations. We all decided to sell or give out our districts to the indie corps we have been funding and supporting for more than a while under the radar, as well as big corps. I presume EoN viewed this as an opportunity(who wouldn't?) and took the districts off of the corporations, landing heavy percentages under them.
Inbetween the wars, we had plenty of times where people would not show up to fight against us and we got bored. Instead of taking the points, we decided to fight and 1v1 eachother for the sake of having a giggle. This formed the infamous Thunderdome which I ran for the first time openly for everyone to join and kept going for a while. It was then taken by various other names which I do not fully recall and became quite a big thing as far as I was told.
Seraphim Initiative eventually turned into a mercenary corporation and focused more on fun until our need for conflict and game-drama drove leading figures to orchestrate the FEC attacks as well as fund them. We had plenty of money to burn and to be fair we still would have to this day if Dust was not taken down. We kept a little planet to ourselves for the sake of income and then spotted EoN abusing a district lock mechanic that basically rendered districts un-attackable. The largest battle in Dust history ever recorded was quickly deflected by incredibly dirty broken mechanics.
At the end, Sha Kharn simply disappeared and was nowhere to be seen ever again with Seraphim Initiative disbanding. I was too proud and smirky when I saw people being convinced that this was another one of our elaborate schemes and that we would return with force and reign again. The sad truth however was, that was the end.
We quickly turned and formed The Rainbow Effect with solid players and stood as a mercenary for hire corporation due to our low numbers. And we were hired A LOT. We gathered plenty of elite players who were in the 1% and went on from there.
I decided to quit Dust 514 after a while and never came back apart from the random times where I would feel the nostalgia kick in.
Thanks to everyone who played with or against me. As terrible as this game was, nobody can deny it had a charm to it. The social dynamics, the drama, the conflict, the backstabbing, the strategical aspect. It was all there for us to use and we did. Seraphim Initiative and the group that went along with it will always be in my heart as the best gaming group I have ever had the pleasure of being with and I am more than willing to follow them in any other game they decide to join. (provided I have a PC that can run it or an according console.)
LONG LIVE SERAPHIM INITIATIVE.
HISTORY WAS MADE BY US. XX
The last of our breed, we are bastards indeed.
Seraphim Initiative reigns.
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Gregor stormwalker
Closed Beta Retirement Home
153
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Posted - 2016.07.15 15:38:00 -
[2] - Quote
I was never a big name in Seraphim Initiative but it was an amazing group of hardcore, fun loving sick kittens. I still remember my first Corp battle, as we are chatting while waiting to deploy Sha Kharn suggest betting on first death silences fell over the channel then one person broke cover and said "umm well sorry Gregor but I'm betting on you " I ended up getting first kill and stopping a point being captured. Then their was the first day of PC when I gave Sha Kharn a spy scare when my eve char joined SI without him expecting it.
Those first few mouths of release where the best (apart from gameplay horrors) when we still had hope that the game was going somewhere.
Gregor stormwalker would have been 4 years old a week after the game shut down (date I Downloaded dust) maybe I will return for nova but will just have to see if its got what I'm looking for. To my friend above and any that see this I will always remember Seraphim Initiative, good luck with what ever you are doing.
check out my dust skills planner/ shop front website
http://dust514skillsplanner.azurewebsites.net
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