But only suck sometimes?

I've played CF since 95/96ish. I have a real good handle on areas, preps, and game mechanics. I can play characters with 20:1.5 PK ratios, and do. But then I can go from a character that just whoops all manner of booty, racks up 100s of kills, and dies very very little to a character with a ratio fo 3:2. Its not a question of playing a different race/class, because I'll go from playing a 2handed dwarf paladin that lands 80+ kills in a short amount of time, to a 2handed dwarf paladin that dies more than he wins.

What the hell changes? It can't be that for 100 hours I only fought the newbies, then rolled a new character and fought only the 9 year vets for 100 hours. Keep in mind, I've been play for close to 10 years now, and I'm speaking of a scope that spans that much time. It seems like I play 10 crappy ass die-aton characters and then once or twice a year BOOM, out comes this wonder that can't be stopped.

What the F is wrong with me? I'm open to any suggestions.

To use your example, it's much easier to play dwarf two-hander if Fortress has competent leadership, Empire's top guns are primarily necros, Outlander is small, etc. You might have one or two top-end good-aligned characters who play roughly the same times you do, meaning you can often call on competent backup when you really need it.

Environmental factors can impact you indirectly as well. If Battle is dominant, they sure don't care about dwarf two-hander.... but it might mean you don't have to deal with many evil invokers or conjurers who might otherwise be problematic. If Tribunal is dominant, they don't care about non-criminal dwarf two-hander, but it probably means Outlander has better things to do than whoop on you.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

n/t

Perhaps with the first dwarf paladin, your competition was a bunch of one-armed, red-headed step children (no offence, Leud).

Perhaps you actually faced some decent players with your next one.

I've considered that, but if you look at the 300 hour span of my average killer, I couldn't possibly be beating on newbs that whole time.

Perhaps your playstyle works well with certain classes. Perhaps you're more careful, watchful, cool-headed and effective with characters that you really get into. Perhaps you're matched up very well vs your enemies at a certain pendulum swing. Some race/classes don't die that often, some die very, very, very much. Place, time, habits of people in your ranges. There are so very many variables are at work here, nobody but you can really say why what happens happens.

Remember: throwaway characters are just that.