I'll be stepping away from CF for a while, perhaps indefinitely. This is partially due to playing from remote parts of the world being more or less untenable with lag and I'm just supremely disappointed in how, well, almost everything is being handled.

I feel like the current climate of CF is really lackluster in a lot of areas and I keep playing trying to recapture magic that is long since lost. The fun stick as far as cabals isn't being addressed in a way even moderately construed as accurate. Battle is swelling with consistent leadership, but they don't have a cardinal foil so it feels...aimless.

Tribunal is bloated, but without any sort of imm-driven incentives for people to break laws, or work against them, it's easier and safer to join them rather than beat them. I remember multiple instances in the past where if one side was getting too massive there'd be some sort of imm-driven bounty on them, or at least some extra pats on the back and immeraction for underdogs.

I appreciate someone throwing a bone to one of the Scarab pledges but really...that's a band-aid and more of a 'hey we ####ed up for a while so we'll throw one dude a bone' instead of something sustainable or an actual long term fix. I'm not going to kick Fortress's dead horse, nor am I going to rehash my suggestions or issues with the current state of cabalwars in CF. That's in a post on this page, which received precisely one token response from Ishuli with little in the way of actual discussion or transparency toward the players.

Despite multiple characters with distinctive roles, goals and aims, over the course of hours and hours of praying, RPing with mobs and people, and trying to find something to sink my teeth into from an Imm-to-mortal interaction standpoint...I've gotten nada, unless it was an empowerment interview and then it just seemed very textbook and almost assembly-line-esque "We have now talked. Please proceed to step 1 to get shaman path shortly." Even following religions now, instead of it being a unique experience character to character, a number of religions follow a very structured path for each character. Notably Panmorne, Ergush, and Ishuli all have set in stone tasks. It's not organic or unique to the character, it's just a checklist.

Which is a shame, because 75% of the fun any of my characters had were mortal-to-Imm interactions. Really learning their stories, talking about more than just 'the next step.' Iunna, Whiysdan, Enlilth, Thror, Ysaloerye, hell even Daev and Baer who I butted heads with a lot during their last few years. They all stick out as really coming alive, and consequently bringing a far greater depth to my characters as well. Rayihn 'gambling' with my villager as I tried to retrieve against odds. Nnaeshuk and Enlilth impaling or punting me during some tense immeractions. Whiysdan sharing drinks and stories. Akresius vis'ing and doing some quiet-but-cool #### after a good fight. The rager who was the divine duelist for always trying to duel imms.

I haven't seen ANY of that in as long as I can remember. Recently when one Imm was vis, I tried to approach them a few times over the course of their visibility to only get the 'they can't hear you' message. Which is just disheartening. CF needs Imms who are visible, and open to immeraction. It brings the world to life. It's the heart that pumps the roleplay blood through Carrionfields.

Cosmetic things such as titles, long descriptions and last names are a rarity and feel like a Nobel prize, whereas before I really enjoyed them being relatively common, or at least semi-present on other characters and myself for the flavor and bringing people alive. Remember when Amatrysti had spectral javelin? Remember the custom AP weapons for Fjodir and that fire giant empire AP JMC played? Those are long gone.

Now, it feels like titles, tattoos, lastnames, are all given out based almost solely on longevity and if you've checked the boxes. I miss the lowbie titles and lastnames if you were cool. When's the last time someone who wasn't a hero had a tattoo or a title (and not a stock title like Morius followers get)?

The last 50 HERO characters on the graveyard, you're looking at like 5 lastnames and 3 titles. That's seriously disheartening. One of the current leaders, who is definitely RPing hard still has no title, despite being one of the most unique characters in the game.

I'm sure the playerbase is partially to blame. Maybe we have soured the imms. But man, it's depressing. Something that I've passionately sunk thousands of hours into for the past 15+ years is an absolute shell of what it used to be. I tried not to attack anyone in particular in this post. I truly hope that people can gutcheck and take steps to improve upon CF, because it's special.

Afraid of accidentally fragging goodie guards?

Wield a weapon that your class does not know! Now you're just scratching his back, which he might actually enjoy!

"But Kors, I'm a warrior and I am deadly with every weapon!"
Well, find the lowest average weapon there is and pray you can spam flee; quaff teleport quicker than you can kill it!


Adapt! Improvise! Don't kill goodie mobs!

Gr

Take off all your armor to lower your damroll as much as possible :)

Role subject : Character Background

role + I identify as a galadon AND voralia cityguard/peacekeeper.
role add

Wield only the crescent daggers. Always go aggro on wanted goodies.


Sent from my 1997 Palm Pilot

Honestly, when you find yourself running around trying to vanquish evil from the lands while wielding a fishing net from Hillcrest to prevent a good guard from murdering himself on you, maybe you've reached the point where you should stop caring about suicidal guards.

So here's my summary of what I'm hearing are your complaints:

1. "Cabal issues"
a. Battle: no mage-drive enemy cabal (Entropy, but mostly empty)
b. Tribunal: not enough law-breaking and criminality to make it fun
c. Scarab: not enough staff oversight, pledges languish
d. Fortress: "dead horse" (???)

2. "I'm personally not getting enough immteraction"

3. "Too many religions (3) are too structured"

4. "Perks are not given out as much as they used to be"

Is that accurate? I'm just one guy, but I'll try to respond to each of these. Hopefully this is helpful.

1a. This is a semi-valid gripe, but Battle is at least at war with Tribunal at the moment. So while Battle's big enemy cabal isn't specifically magic-focused, it does currently have a big enemy.

1b. I suspect there are two reasons for this. First, Tribunal has numbers, which makes it considerably more dangerous to be a criminal. Second, the shift in Fortress direction has made them less likely to get & keep flags. But the same point from 1A applies here: Tribunal is currently at war with Battle. So, if you're a Tribunal looking for targets you should have plenty. Everybody gets Outlander and Entropy, and evil Tribunals can probably go after Fortress as well, subject to any edicts issued by mortal leadership.

1c. This is indeed a bummer, but it's also due to circumstances outside the staff's control.

1d. Not sure what your exact complaint is here, so can't respond.

2. This may be down to there just not being enough staff.

3. It could be that structured religions aren't your cup of tea, and that's fine since there are other religious that don't have as much structure. I'm guessing the rationale for added structure is to take some of the ambiguity out of the process, because it frequently results in people feeling like they didn't get the rewards they "deserved". Might a solution be for you to just avoid the structured religions?

4. This could also be down to a lack of staff, but maybe also some rose-colored glasses on your part. I've had several well-regarded characters over the past 10-15 years and I think I've only ever had a custom room desc once. I've gotten plenty of custom titles, but usually very late in the character's life when he/she had already been in a leader position for quite some time. Ditto tattoos.

We are here again. You have returned briefly, not achieved optimal results while investing very little time in character after character, power ranking and getting great gear and fizzling out in less than a week each character.

I am sorry your level 30 svirfnebli was unable to bring back the Nexus cabal in the 3 days since you rolled the character.

You have no idea what quest rewards people are/aren't getting.

You expect a lot from people who are already stretched super thin.

Just because you RP with a mob does not automatically qualify you for X reward/outcome.

CF is super fun lately. Play a character, stick to it, enjoy benefits of RP and longevity. Thats sort of the equation now. There aren't a lot of IMMs with the ability to divy out super nice rewards.

Also I'm PRETTY sure something huge is happening currently based on IC events that you WOULD know about if you stuck it out with anything.

I feel a lack of immteraction, honestly, like with the previous character.

Nobody answers on prays, then, when that Imm is visible he's silent and I really think maybe I do something wrong ??

If he is visible.

I've had immteraction with Daph'dee, Panmorne, Korsgaard, and Ergush recently, and frankly I rate them all highly. I've also seen them interacting with others.

Don't you remember the MASSIVE amounts of forum drama when those rewards were being given out like candy? I do.

I dunno, buddy, I think I disagree on the IMM front. Cabalwars definitely needs a shake up, but I like current IMM's. And if you want a unique experience, try Rahsael. I can't speak for the other IMM's because I've only really given Rahsael, Whiysdan, and Panmorne a shot.

Sometimes, even when I'm the one complaining, I think the IMM's are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

We can agree that something in CF needs a shakeup. Mostly cabals. But I like current IMM's overall.

My god. Don't you remember the rampant cheating and favoritism given out by Nep and Baer? Oh right... You were one of their favs. lol jk but kinda not jk. ;)

Love ya.

I mean, a lot of your post stands as it is. But me as one of Nep/Baer favs? Are you serious? I was one of Baer's primary haters for a long time. We butted heads across multiple characters and what I deemed was her unfair cheerleader-y version of dungeon mastering while simultaneously cutting out her followers' opposition out at the knees.

Having said that, I still valued her willingness to interact with players and the environment.

They were just imbalancing in some cases.

I personally find today's imms better than the old ones for immteraction (Scarab being an exception, for me personally).

I also don't see being wanted as a big problem. You can actually run past guards most of the time anyway. Ok, bit of a pain avoiding eastern road if you are not a outtie, or having to fight through piles of guards on eastern, but beyond that, it's not bad.

Battle still has lots of magi to hunt. More than ever recently (Halloween forms to be thanked).

That said, I would like to see more perks for underdogs, so that bandwagoning isn't a one-sided path to success.

Also imm exp is too low these days. I can't remember the last time I had a character that hit 500.

Plus I REALLY miss having more edge points. I'd love it if EVERYONE got given an extra 20 edge points, frankly.

Basically, that as dungeon masters and game administrators, it seemed like they had abdicated most responsibility. They do a good job with rules enforcement but less on the DM side, sadly enough. I appreciate the events and such but those aren't really my thing.

Interactions and rewards, big and small, just aren't around much any more. Like some of the ones you mentioned, but also:
- quest forms
- remember when the dude got Barrier spell as a reward?
- I got a sweet edge once for a little old trivia question (apiarist)
- those A-P weapons are rockin sweet
- this guy got Hunters Instinct as a RC reward. WHUT? how awesome.
- or that felar ranger that got spoils of the hunt
- or 3rd and 4th legacies for grinding out against overwhelming odds day in and out

Honestly, I don't care about your 100 immexp adds. Those are like fractions of an edge, fractions which for me never add up to anything whole.

I don't understand the cautiousness with rewards. WTF does the Sunwarden not have a quest form? It's been a year and no quest forms, for real? Was Gliverspitz the last one to get recognized (kudos to him)? There's more to be done. I'd rather hear complains about over-rewarding than this hands-off, do little to nothing approach of late.

Also, cabals suck. CF is about friction and conflict. Why has it gone in such the other way lately? Status quo, more like status no.

Please. Do something.

Multiple recent (less so than the others) quest form rewards
Multiple recent edge rewards
Multiple recent familiar rewards
Multiple recent unique/quest skill rewards

-Ish

nt

I remember the forums LOST THEIR #### when that happened. People freaked out. And now it's being fondly remembered. Just an interesting observation.

I don't think I complain much about bonuses. I've gone up against some horribly OP quest forms (and died). I didn't complain about greater angel or devils even when I'd get 2 round toasted. Liches? More the merrier.

Even Iunna having a bunch of legacies (5?) and sitting on ST gear didn't rile me up.

If anything, I'd like to see all well played characters past 200 or so hours get something special-ish.

But you are totally right, some folks went full on whinerage.

What the ####. I've actually been getting IMMxp lately. You just have to be proactive about interacting with an IMM or consistent with RP with others. It gets noticed.

i killed your char : )

yay my top tier RP!

gr

The barrier spell on a relatively low level ap is just ridiculously op, and was given out for not a lot.

Those ap weapons were op. Frankly, even an ap leader weapon would be crazy powerful simply because it can change types. But barrier on an app that's still in the range where an ap can easily dominate was silly.