I tried out the MUD a year or two ago. I still come back and visit the forums from time to time, simply because it struck me as the best PK mud with RP. However, a few frustrating features made it clear the game wasn't for me. If sharing them might help, I'm happy to do it.

The biggest problem was that leveling without a group was far too difficult. My half-elf character was well into middle age before hitting level 25, and that was with groups handing me over a dozen of those levels. Rewarding groups is good, but forcing them is another matter.

What's wrong with groups? Well, let's admit that CF is so complex that newbies don't have much to offer veteran groups. Trying to find a group of fellow newbies is impractical. (Besides, how could that be set up ICly?) It doesn't help that some group-oriented classes require empowerment, which is not accessible to new players.

My second biggest peeve was age death. Not that I object to the concept at all. However, newbies are going to take MUCH longer than veterans to reach high level - partially because they want to explore. Aging occurs rapidly enough to severely penalize such players. Nor am I inspired to sit at the inn and just RP when I'm on the clock. Changing age death so that it's based on RL months would help. (I believe newbs tend to log lots of hours as they first start the game.)

I'm all for the removal of stock areas (including semi-stock). But I think CF would do better to reduce the pain of newbs trying to build mechanically decent characters. There's still the world of PK to provide challenge, after all.

At the same time, I think a niche MUD that can reliably make the TMS top 20 is already in pretty good shape. I continue to use CF as an example of what a PK-oriented mud should look like. Best wishes!