Dwoggurd, you've had some really solid players so it's good that you posted this because it lends quite a bit of credibility to this post. You're also one who knows where quite a few prepatory items are which gives you a huge advantage and for you to be willing to make this knowledge public means that you wish the learning curve to be lessened for newer players and veterans who don't want to relearn the system. To me, that's great, that is definitely something I'm sure quite a few people think about when beginning this game or coming back to this game. Things are always shifting in CF, but I remember from my past experiences that regardless of the changes in CF, you could always still have a good time as long as you knew some core areas and where all of the cabals were. Now those few areas have expanded a bit and made exploration almost a necessity rather then an enjoyable option in my mind mainly because of prepatory items. Now even this I'm not against to a great degree because of course I only play ragers, but I can see how this would be a definite issue for others and especially for mages because of how much of an advantage a/b/s provides.

My solution to extend the fun stick out and which spreads amongst a slew of topics probably would be the following:

1. A/B/S + Prep Items = Double the duration, halve the effects
2. Strengthen class/race resistances, ie wraithform, etc. to compensate for Rule 1
3. Change quest type reward equipment to something that has really good stats, but also does something in combat that's mainly aesthetic.
4. Remove death traps and remove items/mobs/spells which break equipment or kill people outright ie nerf Mel-Kartha/Stoneshatter/<Bad Amulet>
5. Combine areas so that where's are combined and the walk up to the heart of the area is removed for one ie if there's a random palace somewhere, put it next to something that might flow with it's mystique so that with the smaller playerbase more group to group interaction takes place.
6. Remove Secret Stackable Phylactery or max out how high it can be stacked.
7. Bell curve A-P's Unholy so it starts out fast and then slows but still progresses at a breaking point where you think that unstoppable power is coming.
8. On the thought of A-P's, make the more powerful weapons only sacrificeable at a certain time and location so it's almost like a big day for everyone to logon and have a huge melee throw your weight around type fest.
9. Keep prepatory items in the game, but don't spread them out in so many areas so that if you're a prep whore, you'll be caught due to people knowing there's only two places to get stone skin

I guess this is all I can think of on the top of my head and it should probably have gone its own thread, but I wanted to respond to Dwoggurd's post and went off on a tangent hehe.

Dwoggurd, to finish my sentiment about your post, I think there may be some confusion in your use of the phrase "make public game mechanics." I don't think you want to know the success rate of assassinate on a human with a 3d10 sword, but rather you'd like to see less of an advantage for someone whose accumulated knowledge through either savory or unsavory means. Good post and good responses.

Also, one last thing, to those who think CF is great because of the Exploration, the RP, and the PK, you're exactly right, but to me what makes CF addictive is the Comraderie, the Competition, and the Adrenaline.