Okay, didn't make it to 31 to get here legit, but wanted to let those who interacted with me that I had fun with you and to thank the Outlanders for the induction.

But it wasn't clear I was ever going to get empowered further despite the note, the role, and 4 days of praying. So rather than continue to spam the Pray channel, I hit the delete button after my final sacrifice.

I know empowerment for a made-up religion is hard, but given the lack of a true nature-based religion and the sparsity of druids......Eh.

It was fun while it lasted but I think that was the last time I'll try an empowerment class. Or maybe any class *shrug*

Jeez you must have played nonstop for those four days. I maybe saw you pray once.

Speaking just for myself: if you're going to play an empowerment character, especially a no-god-PC empowerment character, you're going to have to accept that you're low on a long list of things to deal with. That is, I'm probably going to deal with all of the things that need specifically my attention first, and when that's through I may get to grab bag things that any immortal could deal with. This may mean you have to really stand out as cool and convince me I want to push off something else that I need to do to interact with you.

If you're not up to that or don't have the patience for that, probably you shouldn't play that kind of character. Sorry, but it's not like the helpfiles don't warn you about what you're getting into.

There really isn't a clear religion for druids unless you want to go Lyristeon, which doesn't really seem 'nature' based other than the Outlander association.

And no, I didn't play non-stop :P but I did try to hit morning, afternoon and evening hours on the weekend and afternoon-evening during the week. I would pray, wait about 15 minutes, pray, wait about 15 minutes and then finally wander off for a while to try and RP something other than a meditating druid. I kind of thought the note and the pray log would give someone a heads up and that continual pray spam would only annoy you folks. I even tried a bit more dramatic pray before I deleted when at least one Imm was visible. Since I wasn't getting any kind of response, good, bad or indifferent after maybe 8-10 hours of trying.. *shrug*

I would likely have tried to wait it out longer if I'd had any kind of idea that anyone was even going to pay attention anytime in the forseeable future. But I didn't even hear a whisper like 'The gods are busy' or something along those lines to give me any hope.

It's not really a criticism aimed at anyone in particular, just more a comment in case you wonder why you don't have more druids. I didn't think it would take all that much effort on the part of the Immortals to give me a sign one way or another. I mean, I thought I was doing a good job with my religion, but that's just my opinion, I have no idea what anyone upstairs thought.

I noted a couple of your prays and I might have been able to 'fill in', but you seemed to pray right about the time I became visible. I such a case, I am not going to go back into hiding, refresh myself on your role and so on. Even if you prayed every 15 minutes, I would likely be busy once visible.

I agree with most of what you and others have noted. Empowerment is often problematic, though most folks seem to give up if their prays aren't answered quickly. Folks have an unusual idea of how long the process takes...and it can take a VERY long time (which does suck, but happens). With a character living multi-hundreds of hours, 10-20 hours of seeking empowerment is not much in the scheme. If you are like me, I get an itch to play and those hours waiting can be painful.

As you might have guessed, I didn't spend a great deal of effort (other than looking in on you when you prayed) towards your character. I tend to watch those who are my followers more than others...which is a problem when you have no set god/patron who is your advocate.

Are there any Nature gods in the works? I wanted to play a druid as well, but with a lack of a nature god per say, I just didn't find a hybrid that suited my druid role.

8-10 hours of trying really isn't that long to wait. Especially if you're trying something off the beaten path, at least from my perspective. A few characters back, I RP'ed a drow shapeshifter (I think) trying to get redemption, and I was forced to explore and talk to as many characters as were willing to talk to (and ultimately help) me before I even found the imm's shrine, then I made a habit of visiting the shrine for at least an hour every day I was on for about 2 weeks before I got even an imm response, but I did get an imm response eventually. At the time, it felt like the imm in this case didn't have any time for me so just decided to throw me a bone to see what I would do with it, but it was something at least.

On the other hand, if I played all day long for 4 days straight trying to get empowered, I'd probably burn myself out and end up not seeing or thinking straight.

Not knowing the issue, but I guess it is empowerment. How odd. Empowerment has always sucked in CF. Lets see, you say this guy played for 4 days straight. You noticed that, which means you must log on several times a day. You are so busy you or any other immortal that busy cannot throw him a bone? I bet you had time to ask how Zulg's dog was doing. Heh, get it? I said bone and dog :)

Anyways, is really that hard? Isn't there a way to partial empowerment? Aren't there more immortals nowdays than players anyways? I could understand back in the days when there was 130 players and the game was crashing every 2 minutes, but now should be easy. Give some empowerment powers to those younger immortals. If they can read descriptions, they can read roles and make partial empowerment judgements.

I really think the current system limits the amount of good priests there could be. Instead of focusing on a good role, priest need to focus on a god that plays a lot. That isn't right. How many Jaugers we need?

You guys really need to relook this view on empowerment. It just sucks for players that want to explore other roles and stuff.

Not knowing the issue, but I guess it is empowerment. How odd. Empowerment has always sucked in CF. Lets see, you say this guy played for 4 days straight. You noticed that, which means you must log on several times a day. You are so busy you or any other immortal that busy cannot throw him a bone? I bet you had time to ask how Zulg's dog was doing. Heh, get it? I said bone and dog

Could anyone push the button in the time they had? Sure. It's one command, available to anyone above Avatar rank.

The better question is if someone had the time to watch the character and form an opinion, given the other things they have to do. If you don't have the patience for that, and consider level 29 with level 25 empowerment an unreasonable burden, taking a difficult empowerment choice may not be for you.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

I more or less stopped trying to rank once I exceeded my empowerment for two basic reasons: 1) the helpfiles pretty clearly state that empowerment isn't going to come while ranking and I figured if I was 35, whatever IMM who did look wasn't likely to bother with me for that reason and 2) the pk range as wood-elf already is fun and without higher level supplications it's like trying to fight with one arm tied behind your back. So past 26 I only really bothered to rank to help other groups out and to have something to do out of the boredom of waiting.

It is a game after all and sitting on your hands staring at a screen for a few hours while hoping for some kind of response from others, who must've been busy, generally isn't that much fun. I'm not knocking you guys for all the hard work you do, I was just trying to point out a possible reason why druids are at the bottom of the list of classes that get played and with CF's current player population, making things less pleasant for folks who try doesn't seem all that productive in the long run.

Maybe you guys need an IMP/IMM whose main focus is just general RP and Empowerment and not writing areas or code or new edges, if you don't have one already. You guys are doing a lot of cool things, but if there aren't many folks playing to take advantage of it.....*shrug*

>Not knowing the issue, but I guess it is empowerment. How
>odd. Empowerment has always sucked in CF. Lets see, you say
>this guy played for 4 days straight. You noticed that, which
>means you must log on several times a day.

Or it means I read his post. :)

You have to be willing to wait. I, for whatever reason, seem to have a real hard on for non god empowerment. I've had something like 5 or 6 chars empowered that way. The best one required *lots* of patience howeve, and wasn't empowered fully until 120 hours. However, I loved that char and was playing because I had a role I really dug. Don't play a non-god empowerment if you just want to try a class out. Do play a non-god empowerment if you have a role you are simply enamored with, because you will keep going through the hard times and your RP will be better which means that a random imm is more likely to be impressed.

nt

I thought it was a good religion, one perfectly suited to druids and thought I was doing a decent job. The frustration and deletion arose from not getting any feedback that, from a player perspective, didn't seem like it would take that much effort on the part of an Imm. I didn't want to invest anymore of my time if the character wasn't going to get empowered further and I felt I had waited a more than reasonable time for some feedback, good or bad on it. Heck, even a 1 minute note from an Immortal that said 'hang in there, we'll get to you eventually' would likely have been enough to keep playing. I just think there should be more 'fun' to the game than that.

I'm a masochist, but only to a degree. Good luck with the game, I've occupied enough of your time already with this thread. :)