>I was having fun for a while but I'm getting very discouraged
>with this game lately.

CF has a high learning curve. Fortunately, the reward of eventually getting past that curve is that it makes CF even more rewarding and enjoyable.

>Too many bullies out there. Too hard to survive once you hit
>the mid-30s and up ranks. I put hundred of hours into a
>character, role, exploration, quests and skills, and then get
>pk'ed so many times in a row that it's just not worth
>continuing on because of my constitution and practices are all
>burned well before I hero. Okay, so I suck and I don't know
>all of the intricacies of the game...what should I do to
>figure this out? I can't seem to find a race/class/cabal that
>doesn't feel weak when I play it (despite getting my ass
>handed to me by others when they seem to do the same things),
>which is clearly my lack of knowledge of the game.

Everyone gets bullied in the sense that pretty much every character build in CF has a large number of enemies gunning for them at some point. Don't take that part personally.

All the walk-throughs, Wikis, etc., in the world won't help a new player do well in CF overnight. Game knowledge is huge in CF, but so is instinct. I remember playing turn-based RPGs as a kid and referring to a guide in between turns if I needed to. In a game like CF where an entire fight takes mere seconds and you have a fraction of that to make decisions about what skills to use, how to response to actions taken, when to flee, etc., true skill comes through simply doing -- even if you lose. You WILL get better.

>I just have to say, the help files suck in terms of actually
>helping a person figure out how to defend themselves or fully
>utilize skills/spells/stats, etc. I guess the immortals are
>too busy killing me with all of their beefed up characters,
>and programming all these complex things behind the

To my knowledge, there are only a couple Immortals who actively play mortals (at least "buff" ones). It just so happens they also have literally decades (decades?!) of experience as players. In the grand scheme of things, Twist's latest juggernaut is going to be indistinguishable from any other character played by a talented player, especially when you're new.

>scenes...would sure be nice to see some more detail about how
>things work (in an organized way; not "go search the forums").
>I guess some people like it all to be hard to figure out
>because it works to their advantage, but it's simply not
>welcoming to new players. I'd consider myself a moderately
>knowledgeable player at this point, but I just can't seem to
>make a strong character or feel like I'm not at a constant and
>major disadvantage due to the black box nature of the game.

As someone who uses the "go search the forums" line a lot (hooray for newbie channel duty!), I can tell you the reason for that is two-fold: First, because that's just how the newbie channel works. Second, and more importantly, because the forums are an EXCELLENT place to organize and present your questions and get accurate, detailed answers.

>Honestly, some real detail in the helpfiles about how things
>work, how they are affected by different stats, etc. and how
>to defend against them would be EXTREMELY helpful for the few
>newbies that actually seem to play this game. I'm all for
>complexity and awarding those that put a lot of time and
>energy into learning the game, but there needs to be a bit
>more help for newbies out there.

I think it's unlikely we'll ever see the nuts-n-bolts of mechanics expressed in near pseudo code in the help files. That said, in many cases I think the help files plus some common sense are still a very good start. If you absolutely disagree, definitely take Nnaeshuk up on his offer.

>If anyone has suggestions on the best, most efficient way to
>learn this game other than spend a billion hours playing and
>reading forums, I'm all ears. I'm willing to put in my time,
>but want to actually have a real life too...maybe that's not
>possible?

My final two pieces of advice:

1) Take it slow and experiment. If you have a question, try to think of a way of testing it. It takes time, but you'll learn a lot and probably end up building a lot of confidence in yourself, your knowledge, and your ability.

2) Find a MUD client that can log and use it. Review your fights. Critique yourself. Hell, post fights on the log board here (whilst following the rules, of course) and ask more experienced players to offer advice on tactics, etc. Learn from your mistakes. This goes double for learning things like preps, quests, etc. You'd be amazed the things you miss when you're going 1,000mph on the MUD.