Nexus is a sanctioned gank squad that looks for easy kills. Example: There are 3 outlanders on, and 2 tribs, outlander has the scales. One of the tribs is a invoker, and the other is a lion. This is going to be a hard fought interesting fight. Now Nexus decides to "balance" the scales. 3 against 2 turns into 3 against 6, and just for ####s and giggles an imperial or two come along too. What was going to be an interesting fight has turned into a total #### storm for anyone that actually tries to defend. Now let's talk about the other side of that coin.

Tribs or empire has the fetish, and vastly outnumber the outlanders. The nexus is always mysteriously busy or absent at these times. It's inconvenient to end up with a wanted flag, or to be on the wrong side of empire when they are in power. A lot of the fights I have been most excited to try have been spoiled by these guys and "balancing" the scales. When they were at war with the tree I noticed literally no difference. The only difference now is that they seem to raid more because we don't have their item so they can keep their powers while raiding us.

I understand village needs an enemy, but why don't we make it a straight out magic cabal. Nothing about balance or anything like that, just magic. The whole concept of balance is too complicated to have a hard coded thing telling them "time to kill X". Not to mention eliminating personal interpretation of what it means to balance it. Attacking the crap out of some cabals, and avoiding others like they were the plague. Ok, I'm done venting. Seriously though, will someone think about what I've said and consider it for more than a second?

Is in fact useless and does nothing to further interaction or RP in general for the game.

It makes no logical sense and puts a huge cramp in the RP of Fortress players who chose not to think in terms of neutrality.

I really don't even like the way neutrality is conceptualized here. To me when alignments were originally made by Gygax, they represented a races general tendency to engage in behavior outside of their own best intrest, not whethere they were sometimes good or sometimes bad.

I also think Spheres have ben one of the biggest hinderances to RP for the CF universe as well.

Just my thinking.

'I also think Spheres have ben one of the biggest hinderances to RP for the CF universe as well.'

Why?

Nexus isn't supposed to take your item if the balance isn't tipping heavily. Thus, you can wait at the inners if the situation is bad for Outlanders to defend at the outer. If there's a 2 vs 3 situation that is slightly in Outlander favour, the balance isn't likely to be heavily tipped. This allows you to defend at the inner if the coming gang is too large because of the Nexans. If the situation is 2 vs 8 in Outlander favour, the odds are that Outlander is tipping balance heavily, which warrants Nexus raiding it and taking its item. If the two tribs, with Nexus help and the odd Imperial or two gather to attack you and make it 6 vs 8, it makes it possible for tribs to retrieve.

Usually it's 2 vs 3, or 1 vs 2, or 2 vs 4.
Add 5-6 nexuns and you will have 7-8 vs 3, 6-7 vs 2, 7-8 vs 4.

Poster meant that: gang stimulation. Lately, there are not so many nexuns, thanks god.

To me, worst thing about nexus is their behavior. Today they are your friends, tomorrow they stab you in the back and full loot you, next day they tell you 'Hi! How are you doing? Oh, reequiping?' :) Ok, it's a bit sarcastic, but i've had something like that before :)

The bottom line is that Nexus isn't supposed to raid when the balance isn't heavily tipped. They do assist in retrieval if the balance tips lightly. Thus, if you have Nexus help overpowering the defenders, you can wait at the inner and Nexus guys go away after the retrieval is over. Or that's at least what they're supposed to do. Personally, I wouldn't raid if I was playing nexus and the balance was only lightly tipping.

And these are just my views, can't say I really speak for the cabal as a whole. But I hear complaints IC a lot of the time about this, and to me it just shows a lack of real understanding, and also a limited view. It's easy to make sweeping generalities like Nexus never helps outlander, but you need to back that up with something.

In the scenario you describe, chaos is probably not in sway- so we won't be involved. And I am sorry if you are on the receiving end of large unfavorable fights at times, but yeah, you're view of the Nexus cabal is incorrect. I've heard enough of these complaints over time- and it's generally always the same old tune. I equate it to "we like to be the biggest toughest guys on the block and Nexus screws that up for us." It might be nice to know for all of us the dynamics of how the balance is assessed when Nexuns gauge it- but generally the people in power have numbers and probably an opposing cabal item or two.

When chaos sways Nexus may well come there with tribs to retrieve- if they do that, you make a choice to defend or not- nexus probably won't take the cabal item, and if they do, it inevitably gets returned. I also see four outlanders all sitting camoed around the tree all the time hoping some lone trib comes to get his scales. That great fight scenario you describe is a myth- in so much as if things are swaying it's usually a disproportionate advantage to one side. That fight you want does happen, a lot. When things are balanced you'll see a lot more interplay between the cabals actually. A lot more skirmishing and generally more fights because the odds are relatively even on both sides. Nexus kind of acts like a referee. One side gets a little too big and puts others at a disadvantage, they prop them up for a time.

I see wardens helping the fort against empire- and they can do so pretty much anytime they want. I see outlanders camping the fort all the time. And I'm perfectly fine with that. It's just part of cabal dynamics. Some cabals end up aiding one another more so than others do. Nexus will generally aid any cabal, if the others are willing to take them up on the offer. Generally, it is trib, scion, and empire that do. (and in an RP sense evils tend to be more pragmatic about getting what they want and using whoever to do so.) They're also currently probably the three weaker cabals.

Nexus really does not mess with any cabal except battle on a consistent basis. At times we'll go to raid against other cabals on our own- sometimes just to return items to other cabals. We may take an item, hold it a while, and inevitably things shift and we return it.

Lots of cabals make war with Nexus. Nexus does not make war with any. We can't take the fetish if order is swaying- war or no. We should not be killing an outlander unless they struck us first, and even then, sometimes I'll just word out instead of killing the person if the balance is swaying heavy against them.

You want to know why we don't aid in getting the fetish back?
For one, I can't recall the last time trib or empire was strong enough to take it. I don't recall Scion even bothering to do so even with Tavlin around.

And two, the outlanders never ask us for help because we've fought them in the past. Balta made it clear to me when he was Harbinger that nexus and tree are never going to be friends, and that's fine. I think he personally marked me for death on sight by outlanders at one point for killing the spirit (I do miss those chats with Balta). So don't complain that we don't volunteer ourselves to help outlanders when it is pretty much policy over there not to be aided by us. And also, if your cabal makes a habit of attacking us, we'll find other ways of aiding the balance instead of directly aiding you. We're not mercenaries for hire after all, and people do have their own RP to follow. More importantly, in my character's life- I belive I have been approached to help regather the fetish less than five times. And every offer I've ever made gets pretty much rejected. After a while, you just stop trying and look for other ways.

Imperials, scions, tribs- they make no such qualms most of the time about our past conflicts. Fort and the tree, they do, so we almost never do anything on the same side with those two cabals.
And of late- those are the two almost always in power anyway.
And without nexus, lots of the times there would be nobody opposing either of those two sides. So you'd have scepter/scales/codex, and all be sitting around with nothing to do. Nexus provides an alternate PK target when your primaries are not around.

I can't help it if there are enough Nexuns that it is difficult to go after them. Cabal numbers sway, Nexus has decent numbers currently, but inevitably they'll drop.

I've noticed nexus presence only when there were about 6-7 or you online. Rest of the time - bleh... So i agree with the first poster (and no, i don't play outlanders).

Yes, gnomes need justification for their bloodthirst.

Join nexus tody and you won't be turned evil, even if you would kill a hundred of elves in row!

I miss masters :(

Nexus is just a bad copy of battle, with different (worse) powers and boring phylosophy. Sorry Twist, but seriously, with your talent you could create something far, far, FAR more interesting.

We only see our play times of course, so things may differ for you.

Sometimes I'm on alone, other times yes, about one to four other heroes. Are you actually going to complain about people playing their characters? Last night for example, there were 6 hero fort on, and one or two high level outlanders. There were 4 hero Nexuns. 0 scions. 0 imperials. Tell me, what is one scion or imperial going to do if they log on to that range if there were no Nexuns? Either log off or get relentlessly hunted & pk'd. No hope of getting back their item. Pretty much find a place, sit for 20 minutes and log off or switch to an alt or something. Instead, now they join with Nexus, have some fights that would otherwise never have happened and enjoy the game.

And I imagine fort gets bored sitting around all day. This happened not long ago: Zaan logged in, we went with him and had a fun massive fight at the fort. No nexus, Zaan is screwed. (okay, maybe not- cause he's the Zaan- but you get the point)

And killing is not evil in CF, or else every Maran would get turned evil. The motivations are what determine the action to be evil. Nexus don't kill purely for the sake of killing.

Nexus powers are nice actually. Vanguard is underrated.
Bond is pretty ridiculous for the right combo.
Battle = indiscriminate killing of mages. So my elf berserker can kill 100 elf mages- and not get turned evil or even neutral. There are RP angles to it.

Sorry if Nexus ruins your supposed fun because they actually have people playing in the cabal. Play one some time. There's actually lots of down time. Lots of the time all those nexuns you see on are just sitting around or exploring/looking for items.

And all those people who have a problem with Nexuns are pretty free to go after them anytime- even the fort ones. I can not really recall complaining about any character attacking me out of the blue (most don't- most people have no problem talking or saying hello I find.) I do laugh when people attack me that I've never heard of, but I completely understand it. When someone asks me if there is a balance issue, and I answer yes, I EXPECT them to attack me on sight, even if I have no intention of attacking them.

...>Battle = indiscriminate killing of mages. So my elf berserker can kill 100 elf mages- and not get turned evil or even neutral. There are RP angles to it.<

Actually, you would get turned neutral :) Seriously :)

So I exaggerated a bit with my numbers. There's a reason goodie villager is a tough road to play. You should know, Ghrim. :)

Point is a goodie villager can kill a goodie mage. If they do the RP, they probably won't be punished for it at all, unless they make it a habit of just going after fort mages because they are easier than scion ones.

I think the original point was saying why Nexus characters are not evil, cause they have a motive behind their killing. Maran kill evils. They'd still think killing is wrong, just in that case necessary or something. Maran don't get align hits for killing evils.

Nexus doesn't get free reign to slaughter anyone because they feel like it (Nexus is probably the least free to pk at will in that respect since gauge tells us what we should be doing PK wise). You want a cabal that kills anyone whenever they feel like it, that's scion, probably nightreavers too. And to a lesser extent imperials.

nt

Main was that ever a pain in the ass.

Author's note: The bug was that gauge balance would never improve. So basically, you'd have it at 75% or whatever, and there would be times where you'd see a potential PK, input gauge balance, and fail like 3 times in a row, and have to either A) Kill them and hope the balance shifted in their favor or B) Do nothing.

I remember Alex and I killing two chaotic good characters because 5 minutes before we killed them, Chaos was DOMINATING and good/evil were balanced.

Turns out, that someone had logged on (maybe Ahtieli?) and Evil was dominating and Chaos/Order was balanced by the time we finished killing those chaotic good chars.

Rayihn was not happy :)

RE: straight out magic cabal
This would mean they would be able to form open, permanent alliances with cabals that historically have the power to hold their own. At least in the present form, they have to keep up appearances by logging out if the balance shifts against their allies.

What I would like to see is that the balance formula would be changed to acknowledge the nexus impact on effective balance. In the scenario you painted above, the fact that there was a ####load of nexus made the balance effectively shift from 3 v 2 to 3 v 6+.

My last thing: I had heard that the balance formula looks at character levels. Does the actual strength of the characters (like AP charges) factor in?

Balance is too hard to determine using a hard coded read out. Besides APs with charges, does it factor in undead necros, bad ass pkers, healers, and other game changing classes? It's an interesting concept, but I think it's too complicated to be implemented in a good fashion. Not to mention that balancing shouldn't be kill in some cases, and "talk to" in others. I would be interested to see a kill read out of the current nexus crop and see if they tend to favor killing some over others. If it comes out even or close to even, I'll eat my words here and now.

Frankly, it's something like this that theoretically helps prevent huge pendulum swings.

I think the issue occurs when you have a large, active nexus cabal, because their presence makes numerically weak cabals tactical powerhouses.

Fortress is probably hit hardest by this, as their cabal powers and dogma are poorly suited for fighting a neutral gank squad filling the ranks of a mummy's zombie zoo.

Edited: For this cabal to be a successful implementation of Balance, it has to have an objective standard. The formula is a good idea, but it isn't above periodic review and revision.

> Besides APs with charges, does it factor in undead necros,
>bad ass pkers, healers, and other game changing classes?

Yup.

For a few months before the current incarnation of Nexus went live, I had its balance formula running and tweaked it every time my gut read of who was winning (with 'no one' being a viable answer) disagreed with what it said, until it stopped disagreeing.

I won't say it's never wrong, but it's a pretty good approximation.

If this is what they are supposed to be doing, just say so. A couple of nexus helped Tavlin with full army gang down a single elf bard on eastern road. Does this fall under acceptable? Also, do you ever consider one character to be strong enough to be put on permanent nexus kill order? Tavlin, the current mummy, if a huge AP were to come up, etc. I think this would help them from picking up a few nexus when the shift occurs and steamrolling their whole range.

When Tavlin logged in, Darkness almost always began to sway no matter what. Or at a minimum stopped light from tipping. Usually he logged in no scepter- we help him get it back- and than things would be balanced.

Tavlin also reached a sort of understanding with Nexus on his own, but that was an IC thing.

I'd often log in as Hunsobo with no Codex and no Imperials on and 3 Fort who were the perfect combo to ruin my day if I retrieved - paladin, healer, invoker who could create quicksand at the Tara'bal.

I'd ask Nexus for help and get told that no, Darkness swayed.

This was after Hunsobo got up over like 250ish pkwins.

In the end, the only time Nexus could ever help Hunsobo was if a badass goodie or two were on - like once Niheriva started racking up the pkwins.

As for a permanent kill order the only ones I would do that to are ones that seemed to always be after Nexuns. At one point Ravon was close because he was taking the Key and at the same time beefing up his unholy against 1 or 2 sadass Nexun defenders, but he didn't persist in it, only did it a couple of times, so meh. Besides they almost always hunted him once he'd been on a few minutes anyhow.

Have you considered coding an echo for nexus that basically fires when the balance changes?

This may get rid of those specific situations where if its too hectic to have a chance to check the balance they would otherwise push the raid into a situation where the balance is already fixed.