So are we ever going to see another mage cabal like masters? I just checked the non-defunct cabals and noticed that there isn't one for just mages. I'm not asking for a cabal exaclty like masters but something for all mages so we can compete against battleragers. (BTW isn't it about time to have them go defunct too?) My poor gnome mage has nowhere to go!

Thanks,

James

If you think there should be a new magic cabal, get out there and role play your ass off with your new and original ideas on the concepts of magic or what ever. Start to convince other mages of all alignments at a low level before they have a chance to cabal to become a follower of your philosophies. Gold, rare items, and prep locations make great bribes for low level mages. Get a pet bard and start getting world notes on your philosophies. There are so many things you can do to get noiced. If you try, the imms will take notice, especially if you have this in a bad ass role pre-10.

So i would encourage you to do as much as you can IC and come to this site as a last resort, because when you come here it makes you sound like you are merely whining when you are genuinely concerned.

After seeing the effect Odrirg had on Thera, I pitched in and am amazed at what happened IC. Got close to 1,000 GPs in donations personally and part of RC actually got "rebuilt" a little.

Reminds me of a guy who RPed like an old "Knight of Thera". Never restarted the cabal, but got a pimp title and I *think* something else out of it.

Start your own quests. If they're good, they'll catch on and you'd be suprised what could happen.

Your gnome mage has, well, two choices as far as cabals go. So he does have somewhere to go. If you are orderly, then perhaps you could join the Tribunal. If you are chaotic/neutral, then perhaps Outlander is where you should be at. Mage cabals tend to be pretty one dimensional, and also tend to look like a rip off of a number of 'Towers' from various fantasy series. Personally, I love Scion because it ISN'T anything like the 'Towers' I'm talking about. If a written-for-CF mage cabal comes about that doesn't look like a 'Tower' clone, I'm all for it.. Just so long as it isn't pointless like Nexus was.

As far as fighting battleragers goes, mages are FAR from helpless against them. A simple collection of a few wands and you can stand toe to toe with just about any of them for a good long time. If mages couldn't kill ragers you wouldn't see ragers dying to mages in the PBF's. The simple fact is that most mages can faily easily obtain anywhere between 70% and 90%+ damage reduction- then perhaps you might understand one of the reasons the Village is still around.

Otherwise, the Village is a fairly unique-to-CF cabal. There was a lot of effort put into the writing of their history, and even more effort is expended making sure the cabal continues on the path it was designed to take.

First no he doesn't have two choices. I should have been more specific. My chaotic gnome conjurer does not have a cabal to join.

I did not say that mages are helpless against battleragers. By 'compete' i actually ment to participate in cabal wars. Ya know actually being able to have a guardian to hold cabal items and stuff like that.

Anti-magic warrior only cabals are not 'fairly' unique. I don't have anything against battleragers, hell i play them too. It's just they are almost the last Cabal from the orginal Cabals. They have gotten rid of nearly all the others why not them?

Your conjurer can join Herald, and remaining caballess is a perfectly legitimate option as well.

There are close to a couple dozen class and race mage combinations that can fit into one of the current cabals, if being caballed is a priority to you. Surely there's more than one of those you can find interesting, instead of fixating on the few instances that present limited or no cabal options.

I'm not saying another magic-oriented cabal is a no-go, or that it's a bad idea, but it's not contstructive to bemoan the current situation, when it is what it is. There are heaps of character options for players to choose from, some of which lean towards being caballed in a current cabal, and some of which don't. Either of which can be fun and enjoyable. If playing uncaballed is not fun and enjoyable to you personally, then don't choose a class/race/alignment combination that gives you no option that is satisfactory to you. And then, perhaps you can save your chaotic-gnome-conjurer for a time when it does have a cabal option (besides Herald). Whatever the future holds for the cabal situation, one thing I can say is that things on CF are dynamic and do eventually change.

I was not "bemoan"ing the current situation. I asked a simple question. Are we going to see another mage cabal similar in fashion to masters? A yes, no or maybe would have sufficed.

I don't need a cabal to have fun in cf but it certianly adds a little more entertainment to the experience.

You act like I was trying to prove that my character was unplayable or unenjoyable without a cabal. Which is completely false. I pick my characters (race, class, gender, morality) more for a roleplaying aspect than to join a cabal.I understand now that not every character in the game should be entitled to participate in a cabal. Which i am cool with.

I brought this up for the pure reason that after looking at the cabals, My character could not join any of them. I was hoping to get some idea about what might or might not happen in the future.

I apologize if you felt that - but a lot of players have in the past, in fact bemoaned that their character is inferrior because of the current cabal situation, area situation, item situation, religion situation, or whatnot - so that's where I was coming from there.

You will generally never get a straight yes or no answer from us regarding a question like this. We occasionally say no, if it's a "not a snowball's chance in hell" situation, but aside from that, there's always the possibility for anything that is considered reasonable. And we can't really say yes, as there are a lot of variables between vague idea and implementation - so even if it's something we *do* think is a great idea, we're not going to make any affirmative commitments to the playerbase when we can't know when and if an idea will ever actually see the light of day.

So the best answer I can give you is that I won't say "not snowball's chance in hell", but I sure wouldn't count on it in your character's lifetime.

Something that has bothered me for quite some time now. Is that chars that are not apart of a cabal get VERY neglected. Having played an exploration character. Which was trying to explore and find new places and seek new abilities. But it seems this was past the imm that commented this char had as I fealt it was "slaughtered" on the comments it recived on pbf, and yet when seeing how many areas/quests it had done I can only say its deeds where quite heroic. Comments recived where more in the lines of not seeing the purpose of the char. When the role stated quite clearly the thirst for knowledge and search for new places. Learning new secrets of his art, dreaming of several things.

I dont want to point a finger at any particular imm, but I really feel that chars that are not apart of a cabal, that try to make it on their own are more or less neglected. If you are a player that attempts to hold their own, without being apart of a cabal. Heck your shafter faster than a speeding bullet. It seems that to make it on cf you have to be an empowered class, cabaled or kill a ####load of people. Should you decide to "seek out new worlds and races" you will be forgotten.

One really good thing is the exploration/commerce bonus. An incredible idea. But getting any props for playing a char that wants to see new things and practice their art in a "non" violent way. Or non pk way seems hopeless.

Just my few cents. I still love the game and I thank you for doing great work with it. Even though I dont always like the changes :=)

Signed
Player since 96.LH

It is true that generally, if an imm has a reason to watch you, they are more likely to interact with you. And yes, while imms do snoop around watching random mortals, they do, of course, naturally spend more time watching morts they have reason to watch, such as members of their religion or patron cabal. Mostly the intention of this is to make sure mortals keeping with the cabal standards, but of course the side effect of this is that good rp'ers get rewarded, too.

I think religions are an excellent option for uncaballed characters looking for some enhanced roleplay and immteraction. This basically does the same thing a cabal does from the imm perspective - giving an imm a direct reason to watch your character in particular. I'm always surprised at how rare it is that non-empowerment classes make an assertive effort to roleplay in a religion, given that many players want more immteraction, and this is an excellent way to attract it.

Even if you don't follow a religion, you can still find a reason to pray to an imm. Obviously, you don't want to beg for immteraction, but maybe your character wants to gamble with Qaledus, enlist Amaranthe's assistance in contacting a fallen spirit, or seek Phaelim for the persuit of magical knowledge, etc. A character makes their own goals, so if immteraction is something you'd like to see, go ahead and seek out some imms as part of some goal or another.

It's not a perfect system.. but imms can't watch all the players all the time, or know which are good candidates for immteraction and which aren't. While some just get a lucky random snoop, the most realistic way is to have a substantial role, and maybe do a thing or two to attract attention. Joining a cabal is one way, and perhaps the way that requires the least amount of ingenuity, but joining a religion, doing something spectacular and unique, or finding IC reasons to roleplay with the pantheon, etc, are some other ways, as well.

In seeking an immortal when its out of your own faith and its your own pursuit of a goal. Say a "quest" form as a shapeshifter. Your only goal in life would be to learn all what you can of your art. And trying to learn something different. Perhaps not even a special form, but a spell your class does not have normally. Perhaps evolove so that your class can cast a heart of a crocodile(which would give regeneration or something nifty). This is not something you can ask outright for. Ive attempted this with a few chars. And getting a far ways with it, however it seems the limit for this is extreemly long. Even ending up in age dying a cupple of chars in the process.

Im my love of classes I often end up playing empowerment classes or mages. In that Ive found that even though your a very skilled mage, it cannot compare to the fun of playing an empowered/cabaled class/pc.

My point to this is perhaps to look into granting something like this a bit more often to them whom does make an effort. Im not saying toss it out like breadcrumbs, but atleast serve it out now and again. Like the "champagne" you drink every newyear.

And I can again not state how much more weight it seems pk has on how "well" a char is valued. This is from reading comments on the pbf. Perhaps it would be a thought to even put an effort to commenting on some things that where said, or somesuch.

Thanks for your Reply Amaranthe. Having played Crerigord one of the first outlanders. I can only say It was great to having interacted with an immortal which obviously gave someone a chance. I hope Ive given something back to you and the game.

LH

You're welcome, and you're right - you can't and shouldn't outright ask for a reward, or imply your reason for interacting is because you're hoping for a reward. That's definately barking up the wrong tree, and I want to make it clear to anyone reading this thread that I'm not suggesting anyone do that in the slightest.

When I say feel free to initiate contact with an imm, I mean for the sake of the interaction and the roleplay. This may in turn invest an imm in your character enough to watch you a bit, and possibly reward you at some point if it's warranted. (On the contrary, this is a double-edged sword - tangle yourself up in a cabal/religion/immteraction, and you are *also* more likely to be punished for some of the smaller rp infractions.)

Regarding the emphasis on PK, that depends on the imm and also on the situation. I probably weigh PK ability less than most people on staff, but on the other hand, if someone's role is "I'm a kick-ass sphere destruction badass" I'm going to be duly unimpressed if a character is not able to land any kills, or worse, if they avoid fights. I think in part, some imms value pk-ness more, but I think you might also be seeing a higher number of comments of this nature because there are a higher percentage of characters that have an "I kick all kinds of ass" role/mentality, and then don't.

I'll be the first one to give some love to a good kiddo of mine no matter how much they die or how miserable they are at PK'ing. Ailon is a good recent example. I loved the kid, did what I could for him, but in the end, he con-dies. However, he was also wise enough to choose an uncaballed sphere fertility druid. When someone comes to me as a sphere death shaman who talks about how they are going to cull all the weeds, I jolly well better see some action to back that up.

So anyone who doesn't have good pk ability, I advise picking a role that doesn't suggest that you do. This doesn't mean you can't be battle or maran or whatever - just be the terrified-of-mages scout rager who swallows that big lump in his throat everytime he charges against a mage to his death, or be the humble maran that struggles with his inner demons of weakness and defeat, but strives to keep his head up in the face of adversity, etc. Admit your weaknesses, roleplay *with* those weaknesses and how your character overcomes them. Do this well and most imms will admire that - it's when someone roleplays all commando but can't kill a fly, that's usually when people start getting the snide comments. :P