A couple random musings / points:

My assumption, based on how Hell has or hasn't changed over the years and various comments made by the Imms in the past, is that Hell's difficult isn't supposed to function on a curve like a high school math test. Meaning it's perfectly acceptable to the Imms that certain achievements never be made and certain items never be held unless/until it can be done "fairly" (as they define it). If it's impossible given the current player base or other circumstances, then they're "fine with that", as they like to say. If I'm wrong in this assumption, they are welcome to correct me (or better yet, the area).

There is a BIG difference between exploring Hell for you (and a few other individuals) and 99% of the player base. Most people haven't see much of Hell, and any chance to simply be in it is an amazing experience. Even getting to Satan isn't super difficult if you have a competent leader, an "okay" group, and are willing to skip a lot of the things (like eq) that you obviously aren't interested in skipping (which is understandable, because to you, that's actually boring). For a very high portion of the player base, Hell still provides all of the things it no longer provides you in terms of PvE.

I'm all for playing CF with your friends. When I took a long break from CF I played a lot of desktop / console video games. Ever since, I don't enjoy playing any game, even MUDs, "by myself". The IC interactions (while fun) are very different from those with actual people who also play the game, and I enjoy mixing them. This goes against the grain, I realize. I definitely do things that go against the letter-of-the-law interpretation of HELP PERMA. Sometimes I feel a little guilty about that, but it's how I enjoy the game and until somebody pulls me aside and tells me to either do it their way or #### off, I have no reservations with saying that I bend the rules once in a while to make sure the game is still fun for me while still trying my hardest to make the game fun for everyone else too.

What's the point of that? Most of the successful Hell trips are planned OOC. Either the trip(s) specifically is, or some/all of the characters in the group are planned ahead of time specifically for the trip. Even if you roll and level to 51 independently, that "conspiracy", if you will, is still against the rules. The point here being that we all know this, so doing so sort of enters you into an unwritten contract that goes, "I know this isn't kosher. I'm doing it anyway. I accept the fact that it might backfire on me." On one hand, I don't mind planning Hell expeditions OOC, but on the other hand, while I want you to enjoy your PvE experience, I don't want to get instagibbed by an ioun stone that only you can get because only you "cheat" to get it. It goes beyond PvE because you get to take those rewards and use them in PvP.

Should they reconfigure it all so that none of that is necessary? I dunno. I want to say yes, but then when I look at the way New Tiamat has worked out, I'm sorta fine with that too. Given the power of the gear from Hell we know about, and given the likely power of the stuff we haven't seen yet (all things being relative), I don't think that gear should see the light of day very often. It almost SHOULD take some damn-near shady stuff to acquire. I just haven't made up my mind on what I think about that yet.

Final thought on Hell, non-specific to "The Loshnak Thing":
Now that Scar is back, I'd LOVE to see Hell modernized. The code can do and support so much more now, it would be great to see Hell ever-so-slightly updated to include and incorporate some of the mechanics of 2010 CF. This applies to the gear, stats, progs, AI, area features, etc.