I have not been here that long and during the beginning I really enjoyed the MUD, but it has simply become too political to me and the concept 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' obviously does not apply here when talking about the a/b/s. I am a mage player, and it has become almost insanely impossible to be a successful one here when you make it hard for mages to get their rods. I also can no longer tolerate the Imm-player buddy system here. To some of you, me leaving may be a good thing to others I actually had fun with, thanks for the fun while it lasted. Major kuddos to my favorite Immortal Enlilth, you made playing Velan awesome and despite me feeling like I got cheated, I loved rping with you! Ahteiti, keep up the wonderful job you're doing!


I'm out

Imm-player buddy system? I don't get it. Are you saying the staff favors certain players, or that players and staff should necessarily be at odds all the time?

If mages aren't your cup of tea due to the wands system, there's always...all those other classes.

The a/b/s system isn't something I like. It's not so much that you now have to go through more tedium to get your #### (which is still annoying), it's that non-mage classes just became that much more powerful. Ragers, for instance, are also now more powerful relatively speaking. They sure as hell don't need it.

It's been hashed and rehashed and blahdy blahdy blah so many times that I am tired of hearing about it. The game only gets harder, and demands more. It doesn't necessarily improve. At least that's how I feel.

>Ragers, for instance, are also
>now more powerful relatively speaking. They sure as hell don't
>need it.

When was the last time you seriously played one?

I almost always feel sorrier for Battle than mages, and I play a lot more of the latter than the former.

...and no, I'm not a rager player. I have played them long ago and, quite honestly, was kinda disgusted with winning fights on deathblows (this was pre-neo-village). I've rolled ragers aplenty with my mages, sure. But, screw with my wands and there is no way I could. The real serious problem is in cabal fights. You get knocked by Imms and players alike if you don't defend, but you can't collect your wands fast enough to keep up with persistent ragers beating on the door. Even having an "easy" set and carrying around one or two non-sleek rods, it's still a pain. If I had to do it now I just would flat out say "#### it" and let my cabal get worked so I could slowly amass my wands again.


Tell you what though. The next serious character I make, if and when that happens, will be a rager. I don't know if that's good or bad.



Edited to add:

My comment about getting knocked by imms and players for not defending even when your wands are drained and you're completely outgunned is directly related to my experiences with Ithzaruul, and his resulting PBF comments.

I don't disagree that ragers die more often. The problem is though that a rager can be very effective with minimal effort. A ragers with basic re-equip gear can still cause me numerous preps to kill. The risk verus the reward isn't there. The village has no real enemies. Empire is the closest with Nexus coming in at a far second. They rarely are without powers and Empire has too many enemies to be a real threat.

>They rarely are without powers and

That's true, and yet, it's hard to seriously argue that a Battle character without powers isn't the weakest thing in the game by a good margin.

Being Fort/Empire/Scion/etc. without my powers usually feels like fun to me -- I'm at a disadvantage, but it's usually offset by a target-rich environment. Being Battle without my powers just feels like the deck stacked incredibly against me.

As far as enemies, that's one of those things that kind of ebbs and flows with how cabals are doing. Playing Battle my most recent time, I had to deal with mixed Empire/Nexus/orc groups taking the head and sticking it in the orc village a bunch of times. Playing Battle the time before that, it was Nexus raiding pretty often. Playing Battle the time previous to that, it was Scion raiding pretty often. You don't have a million enemies, but there are enough that usually at least one of them will be doing well enough to give you trouble.

A rager without powers is the same thing as a goodie opposed by 20 scions.

Point being? There is no scale to ineffective. You're either effectively able to do stuff or you aren't. In the case of the rager, they don't play without powers or backup. Just like a lone goodie won't play when there's 20 imperials or scions on. Etc.

You can say that battle not having powers 'makes up' for A/B/S and all that but really, how often does "battle not having powers" come into play? Its not that often to be honest - and fighting at the destructor is worth it given the class makeup and powers of ragers.

Anyway, the point I'm making is that the two don't balance out. I did a brief stint as a villager and honestly had no issues against mages - what I had issues with was non-mage warrior/communer types ganking me down. That's the more typical rager scenario I feel like because they can't teleport/summon/etc.

gr

Let me clarify, real enemies meaning someone that is actively taking the head. The theory is that Scion, Empire, and Nexus are the villages enemies. Reality is that Scion may take it but will never have enough memebers to hold it. Nexus is usually in the same boat and if they are powerful enough to hold it, then they probably shouldn't take it. Empire is the only real threat and they rarely bother taking it, because of everyone they face.

A bunch of Nexuns.

As Iegob, there wasn't so many. Mostly imperials and nexuns. And since he was evil all of fortress.

But three out of four ragers have had some really bad odds. :D

With Ckol I faced Waris (Scion nasty AP), Igbah (Scion, Gear stacked nasty warrior), Satebos and a real nasty bard empress, Eoria.

By far Ckol had the hardest time of my villagers, and Iegob had the "easiest". Even though Iegob had 0 chance against the 6 hero Paladins that were around at the time, and the huge fortress swing. ;)

Nah, having played both sides equally as much, I feel more sorry for the village than anyone else (except Scions when they're weak. heh).

Barrier was removed

Aura and shield were removed from potions, scrolls & talismans

Rager powers were reduced

(I'm undecided. But it's an option. And I haven't considered exploration... haven't thought about it deeply at all actually, I improvised the changes as i typed :) )

That being said, it's a fair argument to say that exploration shouldn't exist to begin with and that sanctuary would have less powerful reduction as well. You'd have to do that somehow since all the empowerment classes are balanced around tanking like bricks with their faces.

Bard Repertoire Clarifications:
http://forums.carrionfields.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=6&topic_id=23735&mesg_id=23735&page=

With ABS tedium increased (meaning for those who knew wand sets in the first place), they play a reduced role in terms of game balance. This would eventually lead to mages without ABS getting more powerful since ABS now plays a reduced role in the equation. Therefore I see it as a good thing. This, together with the change itself, brings ABS closer to their true purpose as explorer perks and somewhat diminishes the hindrance they cause to game balance of others.

Thieves and rangers are built to be conservative but don't necessarily have to be played that way.

A mage without A/B/S rods however is built to be conservative period despite innate dam redux.

At hero, you have access to some pretty powerful stuff unprepped that will rip through most mages in melee without a/b/s. Weapon averages starting at 21 is just the tip of the iceberg.

Bard Repertoire Clarifications:
http://forums.carrionfields.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=6&topic_id=23735&mesg_id=23735&page=

If you know you can go 4 rounds then every chance you get go 3 and flee, eventually you will get lucky.

Also there are plenty of ways to alter the damage given/taken ratio beyond damage redux the mark of a good player is being able to use a lot of these different strategies.

The Imms were out to get you from the start. The players were out to get you to. Zulgh took it upon himself to make sure you got armadillo with your shapeshifter. Daevryn set your IP address so you'd never be able to find wands. I hope you are able to find a video game where you can turn the difficulty level all the way down to super duper duper easy and raise your self esteem. Good luck.

adsf

>I also can no longer tolerate the Imm-player
>buddy system here.

That's ridiculous. We hate you all equally. :)