I thought it would be nice to discuss how the staff views secrets of cf and how the playerbase should act. Several things in cf are balanced with the thought that everyone cannot know about this item. For example thief poisons was up until recently like this, or atleast the playerbase believed it to be so.

ABS and other preps is the prime example. Imms say they are so easy to find, that they are everywhere. This might be true, I've found several myself as I like to explore. However as soon as some become public they move around them or threathen to do it. It is highly forbidden to post any knowledge about any wands. Why is it so? Is cf not balanced for having every mage run around with abs, well why not limit that with other means like limited wands(they are already) etc?

EVERY good mage has wands, it is a must to survive. And a lot of that knowledge is being saved in nice .txt files that circulates. Sure a lot of people have found their own wands too. Fighers are becomming as dependant on preps as anyone, same lists there circulate.

Pretty much every char we has seen as exceptional has not found all preps by himself, has not learned all quests by himself etc.

Same with area explore. Some are balanced by though mobs but are simple with puzzles and quests, atleast for most part. Like Thar-accacia and some are the opposite like Silent Tower. Some quests are so freakishly hard and you are being punished so hard for failing.(for example death+full loot) so only a select few progress in that tower. And those select few either dedicate their all their chars to the tower or just...share and discuss on AIM. Same with Hell, the famous imm group knowledge is still inherited and if you don't know that you cannot progress reasonably. Some stuff you do down there is pretty illogical.

I remember when Strahd had maps, I remember diku maps of four first circles and the unlimited wands were semi common knowledge. These days imms want even cabal powers to be secret, not even ids of area explore items are to be shown. You should find out everything by yourself as the cf motto is that it has overpowered items and wands but they are balanced by the fact that no one can get them?

Well we saw what happened when someone very skilled spam practiced for 25 hours, used barrier all the time from 36, used the knowledge to get down to atleast the 7th circle, used knowledge to kill Archmages most have not even seen(Vivimancer for example). No one will get that knowledge all by himself or in game unless he is shown all by someone. I won't critique Cabdru, I think the player who played him rocks and it has really made me wanting to take up cf again. So the discussion is not about him.

I'm not saying we should "allow" posts of quests of silent, because that would ruin a damn fine area. But how about making them easier and instead balance the eq in there. How about not being so anal with wands and preps, how about not bothering if someone posted an ID of mel-kartha? And if you notice that balance has suddenly shifted, instead of punishing those without permas perhaps try and balance items/wands?

Rambling now so I will stop, I hope we can have a mature discussion about this without deleted posts.