I hope they will one day... this will certainly bring me back playing CF.

Few years ago I also exposed the leveled gear problem (asking why the system is in place for wands but not for gear) using the exact same arguments you gave in your point number 2. Imms answers was "we won't change it because we like the swing of it."

I suppose they like to keep the game unbalanced, especially if it's at their advantage, even if "the swing of it" means death of CF on the long run. Or maybe they are simply blind? I just don't understand how they do not see that keeping newbies willing to play is the key to player base growth. If newbies (or less skilled players) don't have enough fun for the huge amount of time they need to invest to be able to compete with more experimented players at PK, they will get tired of being beaten down and simply play something else.

That's is exactly what happened with me. I played CF many years, learned how to easily flee, luckily PK someone sometimes, but got tired of being smashed down in 2 rounds by vets with overpower gear. I'm totally fine with the advantages their skills and area knowledge gives them but adding access to overpower gear on top of that is just something I'm not ready to accept anymore. I now prefer to play chess online where at least, I'm able to learn new strategies and win some games because I compete with somebody who is not starting with two queens on his side when I have only one.

I remembered having fun playing CF when PB was regularly around 50 because I had less experimented players I could sometime kill. But now? with the last 15-20 players, mostly vets who can smash me in 2-3 rounds, I don't expect I'll get much fun from a CF session and prefer to spend my time playing something where I know I'll have some.

Your two other ideas, on edge points and con loss, are interesting but I dont think they will as much impact on the player base numbers than a more balanced game coming from leveled gear system.


Anyway... very good post!