Thu Feb 27 21:11:07 2014

At 6 o'clock AM, Day of the Bull, 29th of the Month of the Battle
on the Theran calendar Halifan perished, never to return.

Race:	human
Class:	shapeshifter
Level:	51
Alignment:	Evil
Ethos:	Chaotic
Cabal:	SCION, the Scions of Eternal Night
Age:	74
Hours:	432

I generally don't like Scion Air/Offense shifter. Its easy mode with huge upsides and generally little investment. You pulled it off well though. Lion was generally too tough for me, and then with muddle, well, that was impossible. Yeti I felt like a had a better chance against, though you seemed to always catch me at my worst possible moments which is a compliment to you and your skill.

Your RP was good and you were always honorable when you fought, though I will say our last battle at the giant with the healer and orc, your comments about deleting seemed a bit ####ish but I may have just mistook what was said. All in all I enjoyed you a lot. I just wish I had some success against you so it would have been more enjoyable to fight me instead of just being so blase'.

Congratulations on a good character. Really well done.

GLWYN

Thanks for the kind words. That last interaction, I don't remember my exact words but I think my intent was to convey something about how you were suicidal to try and charge the three of us.

Regarding success, I believe you were responsible for at least 1 or 2 deaths, one for sure when I fled from you and a bard at your Centurions. Overall, it was not a very convenient match up for you but you did well to repel me when necessary.

Ah yes, that would make more sense now that I think about it since it was unintentionally suicidal. I figured the orc was going to the village and so just charged in and attacked not knowing you two were there as well until it was too late. Quite a surprise.

Thanks to the players and the Imms for making this a fun experience. Halifan was rolled up as a throwaway character. Having never played an offense/air shifter I decided I wanted to give that combination a whirl to see what all the hoopla over the years was about. I've got a thing for the underdog and tend to only play evil chars, so Scion was a natural fit. My RP was not as good as it could have been, though I stayed in character there wasn't really that much excitement or backstory to the character. Mortal characters wouldn't notice this in my RP, but I'm sure the Imms were wondering / hoping for some more development.

The deletion came up due to a few factors: my upcoming travel plans, lack of interest in the character and my enemies tending to be the same fights over and over. I wish I could have steered Scion towards a bit more of a goal but given the lack of overall Imm involvement in the cabal I figured it would take too long to get something rolling, so decided to just throw in the towel so I could focus on perhaps playing something with a bit less commitment. CF has a tendency to suck the life out of you and I couldn't afford to dedicate as much time to it as I was giving it. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I found that having a published wand list available from the conspiracy theorist site made the idea of rolling and playing a mage character a lot more palatable for someone with limited time. It was good to see that over the years since I've played, my list matched up to the generally known list fairly well. A quick note on wands: whatever psychopaths placed my barrier location (post barrier attunement), well it's just cruel.

Some general thoughts on shapeshifters and my quest form. Thank you Lyristeon and the various folks that approved and coded the form, it was very much appreciated. The form did exactly what I could have hoped for, provided me a bit more survivability and ability to take on bigger odds while putting out a comparable level of offense. The yeti form was bugged - its pounce didn't work and the pummel skill was fairly underwhelming, but it didn't detract from the overall enjoyment. Not being able to use it in hot places was an inconvenience, and having to choose between yeti/lion cost me a few PKs, but nonetheless it was a great experience. Though a part of me was hoping to try out the nightmare after Lyr teased me with it during the first night of 100. Regarding the recent shapeshifter changes, Daevryn you've still got some tweaking to do. The fly changes were very annoying to suddenly have to worry about how to escape when the first 300 hours of the character I had become accustomed to one form of fighting and taking the 'fly' command for granted. It seems to be in a good place now, so looks like you tweaked it around a bit more. The carry weight changes are bugged for shapeshifters, as you'll see in my post on the bugboard. The vampire bat is an awesome scout form, but I wish someone answered my post on Gameplay about what the eff 'rabies' did. Was it a straight malediction to stats or some hidden effect? The bat's deafen never worked - I ended up abandoning it altogether as the lion's edged bite to the throat had a more likely chance of success than the vampire bat's shriek. For scouting and its utility, it was an excellent form. The lion is, well, the lion, and I was very happy to land that form.

Some goodbyes:
Lyristeon - thanks for keeping the character interesting. You were great fun to have around, and I really do wish you could have become an active presence for Scion in one way or another. I'm not sure what you allude to when you say I had an early in-game age death coming, unless you mean how I burned through con and you gave the form early out of pity / fear I wouldn't live long enough to enjoy it. I don't know if you ever checked your inbox and saw my email, but here's what I think the imp in Scion would like: . Please keep being awesome.

Valg - I don't know in what capacity you're back in CF, but I shot you a note hoping we could do some cool Scion stuff. Having been one of your first chancellors back in the day, I was looking forward to seeing if I could be a part of bringing you back. Either way, it's good to see you involved with the game again.

Archmage during Mirozah / Gawlar nonsense - I don't know who this was, but I really wish you let me handle it. Having just been promoted to Chancellor, if you took me aside and explained what had happened, I believe we could have worked out a punishment that would not have caused two fantastic characters to delete Instead, the Imm persona bled through and any semblance of RP was gone in lieu of a straight punishment.

Friends:

Mirozah - you were my favorite, because you weren't just a two-dimensional 'ally,' you were a classic example of an enemy to keep close to like a friend.

Gawlar - loved your character, really wish you would have stuck it out. It's so long ago now and at your rate you're probably three characters past this, but we had fun.

Sindy - I enjoyed our manufactured hatred for each other. It made the logins interesting.

Lordamir - I like your RP style and your character build, I hope that you stick it out and make some great things happen.

Socapex - I don't know if you're still around or not, but I enjoyed your unique character twist and your pit idea was enjoyable.

Oloice - man you were fun to have around. I knew when you were on we could join up and become a force for anyone around.

Zhenyen - thanks for stepping down and paving the way for me. I don't know whether you did it to free up the slot or just to try out a new Cabal, but regardless I enjoyed our brief interactions and really enjoyed your RP and character background.

Enemies:

Amatrysti - loved our interactions. You've got a great char, keep on doing the Cardinal thing. Had a lot of enjoyable moments fighting and speaking with you.

Deaer - it's funny, at first I had zero respect for you, but then once I got a chance to know you a bit better I saw that there was a thoughtful RP'er behind the character. Good luck on the hero-imm stuff.

Crraya - we had some fun fights. I could tell you were frustrated, and with good reason - an assassin vs. shifter matchup is just not in the assassins favor, especially piling on the powers. You took it in stride, knew how to get away, and got me once or twice if I recall.

Hexugar - mage kryptonite. You've got a spectacular build, and a few of our fights were enough to show me that you weren't going to be 'roll over and die' villager, and definitely kept me on my toes. Have fun being the scariest thing that a mage has to face.

Aaqren - sorry you had to delete, though you put up a great fight for the few of them that we had. Thanks for making it enjoyable, and sorry if you felt like you were ganged down when Oloice and I were on.

Ishuntal - I enjoyed our interactions, few as they were. Good job on being a sneaky dark-elf, you sneaky dark-elf.

Saphina - very respectful character, was fun to have you around, but more enjoyable to fight you.

Alicade - you had my number 9/10 times, and fighting you was an exercise in frustration. You were far too careful, which made our fights somewhat boring, but kept you alive. To echo what I wrote in Haustr's goodbye, I would have never believed it if someone had told me that Tribunals would be my most challenging fights when I rolled this character.

Foedett - we had some great interactions early on, then it became more about the business of killing each other. I feel for you as a character, because I don't know what possessed you to roll up a vuln-blunt, no hide trap thief. Seems like an exercise in frustration. Hope you're enjoying it!

Einrai - really enjoyed our fights, and our back and forth baiting. Good job on playing a good bard.

Qintaris - as someone who plays tons of Empire chars, I really feel for you. Lone Empire shaman is tough to log onto CF with, and I hope that you're getting enjoyment out of your character against the tough odds that are out there. I enjoyed our interactions, and wish we could have had some more 'evil leader' talks at some point.

Qarissa - have fun doing the evil Scarab thing, you were a fun character the few times we interacted.

Klibendon - said what I had to on your goodbye, but you were the most fun fights this character has had. Very tough, never backing down, and varied in tactics. Hope you're doing bigger and better CF things now.

Voszoad - loved the RP, good luck doing the hero-imm thing! Wish I could have given you a better fight in the Wastes, but I enjoyed it more when you were summoning people for me to kill versus when we had to fight it out ourselves.

Yegrut - wish we could fight some more. Once you found your wands I was hoping you'd be able to give me a bit of a better fight beyond petrify flesh / accelerate, but I understand you've got a nice pacifist angle going so I won't harp on it too much. FYI - shapeshifters can easily slow themselves down to get rid of accelerate, so you may want to try a different approach. Petrify flesh is a great thought though.

Ankhran / JMC shaman in Scion - loved your char incarnations. I had a blast as an uncaballed lowbie with your shaman and us growing through the ranks, fighting each other, then eventually joining Scion together. Was a great time for my character. When you became my enemy, it was enjoyable as well because you were the unbeatable terror that always made me sweat when I'd have to face you.

Heralds - I left you guys alone for the most part, unless I saw you ranking with my enemies, and except for one fun incident with a bad deal gone wrong with Corlx that got me booted from the Inn.

If I didn't mention your name, drop me a line. It could be that I forgot you, or it could also be that I just don't like or respect you, so take your chances if you like.

Some past characters:
Qiirvas Xiiv the Hand of an Immortal, Imperial High Priest (dark-elf shaman high priest)
Urog d'Evir the Unseen Hand of the Empire (duergar thief emperor / hero-imm)
Uzurag the Weaver of the Elements, High Chancellor (dark-elf scion invoker)
Varik the Holy of Faith, Imperial High Priest (minotaur shaman high priest)
Brulgor the Unbroken, Anathema to the Empire (duergar warrior that anath'd and just ran with it)
.. and a slew of other chars during my on/off playing since early 2000's.

As always, thank you to the volunteers that run this game.

Guess this means you wont be sharpening your claws on me anymore. Great news!

Really had me nervous every time you and Oloice came to visit together. You were one of the reasons I took my prepping up to a new level. Good luck with whatever comes next.

Because of some personal things going on, I have been kind of slack in some regards. I think you wore some things early in the game that made your age death look awry. You definitely didn't get the form out of pity. You earned it all the way. We were just trying to find the "best" time to give it to you which was a fair amount of time before we actually did. With Zhenyen being the Chancellor at the time, it didn't appear that you were going to get leader time and con soon. So, you got it when you did. Becoming Chancellor just gave you more time then you normally would have gotten. But, hindsight is always 20/20.

Because of the chaos associated with the yeti and the area surrounding the cabal, it was the best fit for your character. I think people avoided certain areas once they had to deal with you in that form. It was a really great form near fortress and basically useless near the chasm.

FWIW, I don't think the Imp should be the Scion imm. While there is definitely room for my followers in that cabal, my persona doesn't really fit with the overall goal of Scion. It's too chaotic and it bled through with your character. This isn't a bad thing by the way. But, it definitely showed that while you did an excellent job as a scion, you weren't the best leader for scion. I think you know what I mean. All in all, it was an awesome ride watching you.

Thanks for clarifying the age death thing. Maybe I'm not understanding how it works - I thought if I wore +age items, I could avoid any long term repercussions as long as I removed them before they pushed me over the hump into the next bracket. Guess that's not the case, so good to know.

I agree that the Imp in its current incarnation shouldn't be Scion, however having someone, anyone, dedicate a bit of time to watching over Scion and giving it some guidance and attention would be nice in Reksah's absence. I'm sure it's on someone's radar up there.

As for Lyristeon follower vs. Scion leader, I'm not sure what you mean about not being the best leader. I think it's possible to combine the two easily enough given how open ended Scion RP can be. While I may not have been the best example, I don't see why a true chaos follower couldn't weave in the destruction of the world part into a nice package. I'll just have to keep at it I guess. :)

Thanks again for all of your support, I hope I was able to create some fun moments that left you and others surprised and entertained.

Hey, that combo has won me a few fights against shapeshifters (shhhhh!). Loved the fact that you picked up on the whole 'libertarian' thing so quickly, had alot of respect for you after that. The thing with that combo is knowing how fast its going to hit you. Most people dont. It's also a good way to get those in the know to run. I have been trying to think of new combos though because thats one of the reasons I made Yeg (or more likely Tiggle) , was to find something besides neuro to kill people with...but hey...sometimes a classic is a classic for a reason :)

I interacted with you over three characters (I won't name) and will miss your presence.


From my experience, bat deafen worked, but it was a matter of ticks vs hours, so your gain from it might be to deny them one spell. Pounce forms always seems pretty unreliable to me on forms with lower dex, so it just may have never fired. On dire wolf I remember forest tracking working about 3 or 4 times over 200ish hours.

n/t

I would like to go back to see how our pk record was against the other. You would probably win.

I wish we would have roleplayed more, but we sure did fight a lot.

Well done.

GLWYN

Thanks for the kind words, I had a blast fighting you. You were there through my 42 - 51 ranks to torment me and help temper me to handle RBWs. You were always willing to throw down which was great as well. You had my number early on and helped me to figure out how to turn that around fairly quickly with our fights.

At the onset, we pretty much ignored each other aside from the general "dark" banter since I don't think either could come up with a valid reason to be other's foe or friend. Then I flat out asked, you basically said "whatever" - all in RP terms, of course, then the whole Deception spat happened and we became enemies. So from then on I had to be very careful, preemptively zapping myself and just generally watching out, because I know what air/offense can do. I'm just glad and/or lucky it ended 1-0 in my favor. :)

Also, am sad to admit I was glad you deleted since I don't have to watch my back carefully anymore. :) At least, not more than usual.

GLWYN, roll an outtie since it seems more your style IMHO. Or even try a Scarabite, albeit that's a much harder road with no powers. :) It's for true powergamers - who can be powerful on their own.

I never felt like I was ganged down, really. It was more of a "oh, an orc somewhere between level 1 and level 51 is on, I wonder where the head is, har har. Let's go retrieve it. Oh, grand, Oloice has now logged on too. So much for that idea." Fighting the orc just meant I was going to have to farm some gold and recover hitpoints just a little bit more slowly than I did the previous fight. Add a few scions/nexans/scarabs, and my fight was going to be over just one or two fewer bashes.

The most annoying thing in fighting you was that polearm cutoff didn't seem to work well against hasted folks, so sealing a kill when you had control translucence up was impossible.

You were a joy to play against and interact with. Your prowess was an inspiration. One of those characters, while being so well played, one can still tell the player is a class act behind the evil.

Favorite moments: You catching me and Avalusci in the Underdark just as I put him in to an emergency healing sleep. How I managed to survive you, wake him and then watch him kill you still brings a grin. When I saw the bat come in just as Aval nodded off, well, wow, what a moment.

Our "anniversary" in Darsylon where you would sack the city in our first meeting's honor.

I suppose there were too many moments, truth be told. When you were around, memories were being made. Well done.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane, definitely had a blast when you were on to help keep others alive and attacking me.

When I was ranking up from 42 - 51, you helped make the Fortress an absolute terror and I burned through a bit of con grunting my way through those ranks. It definitely helped to turn me into the enemy that you saw.

Some of my favorites:
Getting Voszoad to dispel you for the two-rounder on Calandaryl

Having you slip through my fingers un-sanced when you evaded a rake.

The times you'd bring the goonsquad to raid the chasm and it'd be a nice long stand off were always exciting.

I will say - I enjoyed the Fortress of two months ago a lot more than I do now, but you've managed to stay consistent throughout. Great job on continuing a quality character.

Great job with Halifan and you really deserved the Yeti form. I could
always count on the randomness that would ensue when we encountered
each other. Your role was spot on and your presence always had to be
accounted for. At one point their was a major uproar with both of us
assaulting the fort together, but that was one of only a handful of
times we actually "worked" together. Since Mirozah and you are gone I
can put some of this is at rest. Voszoad, in his eyes, realized that
you both posed a formidable opposition to the tree. And to borrow
Mirozah's words, the toad had an unspoken agreement. For the tree to
grow it would of been unwise to stoke the fires of the chasm when
the Spire was on the rise too. I played on the toads deceptive nature
and never raided when either of you were about and remember on a few
occasions when others of the tree took the scepter I alerted Mirozah
when it was ideal to retrieve or came up with an excuse to not defend
a retrieval. Prior to the day we both raided that caused the uproar,
the toad was on this kick of taking the "shiny ball" he coveted from
the fort to play with. The day we raided it was just the toad trying
to take advantage of the situation and hopefully get the last hit in to get his ball as he seen it. In the end...We used each other to
further our own goals at the time.. And yes I got a good tongue
lashing by the Spirit that this wasn't Thar-Toad. All in all..It was
a pleasure to cause some chaos with you...Great Job!!

Crooooooaaaak!!!

Sad to see you delete. Only had a couple of fights but I enjoyed them both and was looking forward to you beating the stubborness out of my char :)

Good luck wih the next.

Tigger! :)

I was totally trying to figure out how to kill you. You were too smart to let me kill you like Drogar, and I couldn't outright betray you like I did Oloice and Soviatos without having some pretty negative consequences. But, you were right, I was trying to kill you.

Matter of fact, I made you kill your own nightwalker once before I would speak with you. Unfortunately, that didn't work the way I wanted it to.

Ironically, me just subtly hinting that it would be.. oh.. so terrible.. if an orc fell the nightwalker was seen as bad mojo. :)

(On a side note, psyche crush against orcs is stupid - Orc vs. high dex Transmuter is like maggot vs. eagle)

One of the most nerve wracking times for me was when we were in Trothon together, and I was at like 20% hp and -200% mana or something.

Your little torments were so much fun. For a minute I actually thought you might kill me! :)

I totally appreciate you telling the Archmage to make me Advisor when you got tapped. I had a feeling the 'greedy manipulative bitch' side of the character just rubbed imms the wrong way, and I got labeled a whining greedy bitch.

Anyway, I absolutely loved Halifan. As the IMP said, you were the chaos to my darkness, and I really felt we bounced off each other really well. Sorry I totally pulled a Leeroy Jenkins on you in the end, but I was really just done and over CF right around then.

One of my favorite moments with you is when a druk'tar blinded some villager assassin on the eastern road. You fled and the nightwalker kept fighting him. You actually reverted out of your form, sat down, and cheered on the nightwalker. I died laughing.

GLWYN. Great Char, and from my point of view, SO much more than a flyto/murder shifter. Don't listen to negative nancy. :)

Watching the two of you together was really a highlight of the past few months. Throw in Drogtar and Gawlar for awhile and I had fun.

I kept out of it for the most part, but I knew the whole leadership position of scion was between the two of you. It really was a great time for the religion in scion and you both pulled it off extremely well.

Thanks Impynessdom. :) I'm glad I was able to provide you with some small fraction of the enjoyment you give to others.

You the best!

NT

It's hard to RP with shifters, and your forms kept me on my toes. I don't think I died to you except when you and Voszoad came to raid the Fort. I knew that to kill you I would have to find you in a compromising situation. Like trying to retrieve, or out of form, but I don't think I ever sealed that. Good job, and well done.

I should definitely try and put more time in writing my roles, actually. Sticking it out shouldn't be a problem, not dying while teleporting, well, that's something else ;). Was good to have you about, and thanks for the login. The black wand wasn't where I told you, but in the meanwhile I did find it though :). See you around!

A very well played Chancellor. Why did you delete? Did it stop becoming fun?

My first experience with you was watching from the shadows in Galadon after you had just killed Klibendon and you were trying to convince him to go after the tribunal mages instead of trying to fight you, as it would be mutually beneficial. Then what seemed like the next time I saw you, you were Chancellor.

Our interactions from then on were always top notch. Thumbs up.

I managed to make it to the night of 100 players without eating a pk, then ate three that day. One was to ormee, who outranked me and wore my mana down faster than I realized, the last one was to two tribunals, and then there was you. I didn't realize you could see camo, and you caught me with my proverbial pants down and my d*ck caught in my zipper and one rounded me. Our other encounters were more fun for me. Wish I'd bantered with you more. glwn

I hope I taught you a bit about preparation. Whenever I'm in the Shadow Grove, my goal is to get in and out as quickly as possible unless I know I'm at the top of the food chain online at the time.

Sorry for failing on you as Gurso. I just did not have time and I was not really impressed with the alligator form. It might be good in combination with another offense form but alone it wasnt that great. I'm not sure if it just needs better dodging or if it just needs better lagging ability. But regardless, you were awesome in all of our interactions. I was really hoping i would find time to finish that character but alas it was not meant to be.

No worries, I don't blame you for bailing. I did find it funny that you bailed just after I gave you an interview, I remember thinking 'man, did I scare him away THAT much?'

That bat form of your helped you a ton in our 1-1 battles. Never being able to be in a martial trance made fighting you and that nightwalker tricky - and boy did you know how to use that thing to your advantage.

Anyways, you pulled off outwardly eeeevil better than I ever will - and even though you tended to taunt and bait me a bit, I never thought it was the player bleeding into the character, and instead I thought it's how this char ought to act.

Well done... and boy did I want to pop you one "for the road" when you swooped down on me to say "bye".

I would have enjoyed it if you took the opportunity to kill me when I came to say goodbye. You certainly deserve the chance to. Mentioned you in my goodbye - was a good char.

Dangerous foe. Not unbeatable but outside the city you were a real challenge. And you were damn good at baiting.

I dunno about yeti, it didn't look powerful at all. A case could be made that it's a good form for your style - getting enemies to stay, then shifting into lion for the kill. But that's it.

Did not enjoy our talks very much, but I suppose that's just me and my no-nonsense "boring" attitude.

Good luck with your next.

Mentioned you in my goodbye - you were an enjoyable foe.

While the yeti wasn't a powerhouse form, I wouldn't call it underpowered by any means. It has some surprises to it that you would not have noticed, but helped me in fighting you.

I really had a lot of fun fighting you, because your forms allowed you to shift in, out, and around everything, from detecting hidden to offensive really fast.

I obviously never defeated you, but it didn't change the fact that fighting a character that had the variety of forms made me constantly typing commands like crazy whenever we did tangle. The time you hit the 5 damage traps was pretty sweet, though I'm pretty sure that writhing for you at the time was probably leaving you with more hit points than I had at perfect health. :P

From what I could see even as a youngster growing up when I was hiding and heard you talking to others, you were very good at the eviiiiily maddening type guy and you certainly made the rounds. A great evil character, a great person to root against, and exactly what needs to be in the game to make things really interesting.

Glad I was able to be bloodied by the the claws/fangs/big yeti fists in my short time.

Thanks for the kind words, I'm really glad that I was able to bring some excitement to you. Your response is a big part of the reason why I like playing CF - being able to create a character that has an impact like that on another character is great.

Lyristeon usually talks about rewards being handed out for those pushing 'high hours' When was the character rewarded? He ends at 430 some which by my standard is hardly there. And he was rewarded for what I thought was 'longevity' well beyond that.

Ive had countless chars in the 300 hour mark and two over 600(which did not receive anything out of the ordinary.) This is something ive been trying to understand. Considering this is a prime example of 'longevity' that isn't really 'longevity'.

Longevity is a shifting term based on manythings including balls, rp, dying and killing gracefully, and pulling it all off with a twist. I interacted with this folk through roughly 2 maybe 3 characters and was always a class act and brought a lot of fun to the game even if I was usually on the receiving end. Say what you will but I believe he played his place well. GLWYN

Longevity has a static meaning. It is not a mixture of all the things you just made up. Let's not go redefining the English language please.

nt

NT

I probably wouldn't have personally given Halifan a quest form quite so early, or I would have swapped it in for lion to add a little more of a drawback, but at the same time: you've had at least one quest form as a Scion shifter. Do you think Halifan deserved it less than you did? I don't.

Halifan overall was a well-played interesting character who did some different and memorable things.

There was a discussion on when he was going to get a form. He was playing a human who had an early age death coming (for in game reasons) and Zhenyen, at the time, had more hours available to him. All of these things were taken into consideration when he got it.

Late bloomer flaw? Or just a bad roll on max age?

Somewhere along the way, he somehow lost over 100 hours.

I'd like to thank you for taking my goodbye thread, and the 400+ hours I've put into my character, and distill it down to your own insecurity about getting or not getting rewards. If it's alright with you, please feel free to continue your perceived imbalances to the Gameplay forum and let me have my 15 minutes. Thanks!