Mon Aug 26 16:38:17 2013

At 1 o'clock PM, Day of the Great Gods, 26th of the Month of the Heat
on the Theran calendar Lithenarlia perished, never to return.

I'm very sad to hear about your empowerment woes.

Correct me if I'm wrong... you were empowered with no specific god and then joined Neltouda's crew b/c you got a chance to. Then you didn't feel you could complete your tasks because of sparse logins and wanted out. Then she unempowered you completely instead of just smiting/slaying/otherwise messing you up.

Sounds like you bit more than you could chew, just like I did. CF is pretty brutal about messing up important decisions in a character's life... I suppose one could say it's realistic.

I saw your castaway title. Since I've met quite a few people who left their religions without great consequences I didn't really think it was anything too bad. Should have realized it's different for empowerment classes.

That aside, Lithenarlia was very dear to Kazzru. You liked to talk and I enjoy people who are open to some Theran gossip and discussions, as opposed to those who only talk about themselves and their cabal/religion.

However, you should have talked about it if you had religion trouble! Hell, that's what you advised me to do when you were Thuorn, remember? Okay it was a bit different but for some reason I immediately remembered it after you said you played him. I always figured that guy could handle any trouble of religious kind...

Just unlucky then. Don't leave CF over it!

Important things first, I thoroughly enjoyed Kazz and the open friendship we had. I do hope we can repeat such at a later time.

If there comes one, it'd be after serious re-evaluation of what I want out of CF and it's likely going to end up with playing (primarily) for me, myself and I. Which means playing chars that do not need ANYONE to be successful. And where any extra interactions and friendships are a bonus, rather than a must-have.

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So, if you got this far, a bit of background behind the whole story:

I started with the intention of going 'general empowerment', as I didn't think/know there was an active Imm for sphere Spirit (and I didn't want to depend on anyone). Surprisingly fast though, Neltouda shows up, as I enjoyed following her with Nian, I thought, why not again. She also empowers me pretty fast. As I hadn't really done anything yet, I thought I might perhaps be empowered to, say, level 25. Turns out that was full empowerment.

I had pretty elaborate plans from the get go that were tailored for a patron-less character, finding things out on my own, but I thought I could adapt them to following Neltouda.

That turned out to be a great misjudgement on my part. As I didn't want to abandon the ideas I had, I chose to rather abandon the crew. I did indeed likely bite of more than I can chew, but it seemed appropriate at the time.

For me it never was about the tasks, I didn't mind taking things slow, as that was my plan anyway. I was prepared for a much much slower process, so perhaps I didn't adapt enough to things going fast.

See also my post below:
http://forums.carrionfields.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=4&topic_id=116674&mesg_id=116693&page=

I didn't find an active Imm that I really felt like going for, so I rolled up Lithe with the idea of going without a patron. That was fine also because then I get to chose my own way freely without having to adept to certain dogma (no matter how loose).

The downside to this is that you have to work much harder to get noticed, there's no chance of a tattoo and rewards in general may take much longer than normal, and you probably get less anyhow. That's fine by me, but I don't think that could be called easy by any means.

Then Neltouda shows up out of the blue, which was an exciting prospect, but one I should have politely turned down, as I later realised.

When I did realise my OOC mistake, I told her I wanted out. In my opinion she then totally got into a cramp and chose to push me into a corner I told her I couldn't get out of.

Maybe I communicated poorly, but I don't understand why you would totally block a character (which I think was very meaningful to the game), just because I wasn't playing 'by the book'.

Multislay me, give a me an incurrable plague that lasts 2 ingame weeks, I don't care, but how could I be a beacon of hope, if you don't give me any?

I think it would be good to re-evaluate what you want with the game and how seriously it should be taken. Right now I feel I've been punished because I wanted to play CF casually and at my own pace. Even while taking the character itself very seriously and adding to the fun of the game. If I wanted stress and a demanding boss, I should have kept the job I recently quit.

I feel that empowerment is broken, or at least is not something I like. And as my two favorite classes require it, I'm pretty much stuck with that.

Huge thanks to everyone who made it fun, especially the people at the Fortress and Inn.

Special mention for Rydell, Voralia, Tykanis and Kazz.

Take care,
Lithe

(And Thuorn, Thraris, Nian, ...)

I did wonder why you were flamestriking me the few times we fought. I was suspicious that you were just softening me up a bit to then bring on the wrath pwnage (tm). When you didn't I wanted to ask you IC but I had to keep my cover.

I don't agree with you on the empowerment thing though. I a mere imperial assassin, with fire resistance stoneskin and protection from good, had to flee and heal several times before I managed to get the maran outer with you defending. And believe me the maran outer wasn't the one making me flee.

If you were empowered properly it would be a EASY button. Either you killed me or I fled never to return. You were expecting the EASY button....well easily?

Rather than keep striking the Maran, and you'd have found out how frail an Elf Paladin is, with only haven and protection, especially if you keep me from doing those flamestrikes. There were other fights where I got very close to getting one-rounded, so its relative.

I was really interested in see how your life played out, what with the discussions we had. I was really pulling for you. Like I said, I didn't envy your position, but could only hope it worked out eventually. Sorry it didn't happen the way you'd have preferred.

Hope your next is fun, and good luck with it.

Lithe was so attentive and understanding of the other view that it was very hard not to like her. Israh didn't really see you as an enemy, why you might be a convert before long.

I am sorry to hear about your empowerment woes.
Thank you for the discussions and better luck with your next character.

Concerning your empowerment deal.

Certainly by PM here or on Dios if you like.

I don't want to comment without more details, but it sounds to me like you had no god chosen, were given a chance by a god you didn't intend to follow, and then decided to leave them after being granted a place in their religion?

I totally understand the casual mentality, as that too is why I often stay away from my own favorite classes (paladin and healer). However, choosing to abandon a god(dess) should certainly come with some consequences. Regardless of the reason.

Anyway, just curious about the details is all.

As I said, I don't mind consequences. But where these led me was exactly the opposite of why I wanted out in the first place.

Neltouda (if I understood correctly) wanted me to convince her that I've thought things through, but I couldn't/wouldn't provide her the answers she needed, exactly because I didn't want to have to come up with all the answers up front. Rather, I wanted to play like 'walking the path is more important than reaching the destination'.

So, to me it looked like, the only way out was exactly what I tried to leave.

I give empowerment relatively easily. This is mostly due to the constraints on my play time because I don't want to take the fun stick away from people that play all the time. Your character was no exception. You had full empowerment from day 1. I would imagine that this would be an exciting prospect especially for a casual player like yourself.

You explained to me that you wanted to be an exploration character because you didn't know anything about anything. I gave you a task that would have followed with a lesson (Neltouda religion dogma specifically tailored for an acolyte) which is a very common thing I do. I gave you that task specifically because of what you told me during our interaction. If you don't want to be a cutesy fun rp person that does little things like the task I gave you then you should not present yourself that way. It is not the sort of task I would give everyone. I was trying to role play with you rather than at you. I did watch you for quite some time after giving you said task. You proceeded to use the pile of gold I gave you to buy your low level character gear. Not a bad deal for yourself if you are playing a greedy bastard... but you were playing a paladin. That probably wasn't a good move for you. I intentionally ignored you for a slight while to give you the opportunity to redeem yourself. You are not a total newb. Telling me that you could not find an object because its short description didn't have a key word in it is ridiculous. So here we are you have quite a few ranks, and you haven't completed the very low level task I sent you on. So I send you on another one. From my understanding you were also confused about this task. Yet, your confusion still permitted you to buy preps with the second pile of gold I gave you.

You did not come to me to express confusion or difficulties at all. Instead you went shopping for someone new to follow that didn't make you do "tasks". It is rather convenient that there was a recent post about people getting virtues if they follow Voralia when you decided to abandon ship and ride on the Hope train. When you play a Paladin or a Shaman especially faith is a vital part of the makeup of that character. You the player decided to take how you play faith on impulse. Which is fine. I do not mind players following me on impulse. That doesn't mean you get to continue to be impulsive without facing certain consequences. Neltouda believes that when she empowers you or even tattoos someone that she gives them part of herself. Part of the power that makes her alive. You stomped on it but didn't think me taking away said empowerment was ok?

You explained to me that you had changed. You were very certain about your change. Yet, when I questioned you about how you had changed you didn't have any answers that demonstrated change. Your character did not express to me (in our first conversation about the matter) that your roleplay was in anyway different. It was the same stuff you had been doing all along. A change in faith should be something pretty drastic. If it isn't something like that, then well... it's not very good roleplay. In our second conversation after loss of empowerment I literally had to walk you through it. I had to focus you, and I had to ask you about your new dogma. Trying to pull the word Hope out of you was almost painful. It should not have been that hard for someone that had really changed their focus. You asked how are you supposed to have Hope when Neltouda gives you none.. well you decided that Voralia was giving it to you. I just wanted to see you actually roleplaying that you had Hope. The poor pitiful me attitude you had is quite the opposite. You were moving in the right direction, and if you would have attempted to roleplay a more positive attitude then you would have easily been given what you wished. I didn't block you. You blocked yourself.

As far as empowerment being broken... I think if you can be empowered at the drop of a mug then it probably isn't all that broken from a player perspective. At the end of the day you got 400 gold and full empowerment, and you didn't do jack.

I doubt anyone around Lith even suspected she had that kind of trouble. She could not ask for outside help? I assume that's a no-no for a personal quest...

One of which is asking other people when you don't know something. Isn't that what a normal human being would do?

KABOOM!

NT

All I can say is wow as well!! full empowerment from day 1, 400 gold and still thought that you took away the fun stick. Don't get down on this Neltouda!! You make me want to roll a follower!! =P

- 1st task

You asked me to find a purple fruit. That made me think of a plum. I immediatelly went to check all shops for it and didn't find it. Wondering if there was a part of the city I didn't know about, I asked around about it, no one knew about that fruit or where it would likely be found. When you showed me, it turns out the fruit description doesn't contain either plum or purple. I don't remember by heart which word is used, but it's one I had never heard of, so nothing did ring a bell. As I told you, I didn't think of buying all fruit and checking the description. I should have, but I just didn't think of it, plus I still wasn't convinced it was there.

I told you several times that I botched this task because of a dumb (language) misunderstanding. If you think this is ridiculous, too bad, 'cause it's true.

- 2nd task

I literally spent hours working on this, as I didn't want to go back with a failure again. I found all items except the lady with a ring fit for an elf. Again I asked people around me if they knew about her, but no one did. I went through every room, looking at all possible descriptions, for clues or maybe hidden compartments. I even had help from someone with fog ability, to go room by room, to check if it was someone hidden or a flat transmuter or something. Again, nothing.

Yes, maybe I should have told you, but I really didn't want to go back empty handed. Then I go vacation for ten days, I come back and start looking again, still no success.
In the meantime I had developed role plans that I didn't think fitted your religion well. Maybe that was unjustified, maybe it was.

At any rate, I also felt I'd rather go about it on my own, at my own pace, than be 'restricted' by having a patron. In short, I wanted out for OOC reason.

As I told you, it never was about the tasks, I would (and did) spend all the time I needed to finish it. Does this mean I spend _all_ the time searching for your task? No, after not being able to find the lady for the longest time, I think it's natural to want to get out of it a bit and do something else. I returned to the task several times, as I said above even with help.

Nothing. Then later you tell me the lady doesn't even exist.

- Voralia

The Cardinal always had been nice enough to help and guide me, he knew of the situation and suggested I'd talk with Voralia. I did and things got rolling pretty fast. I needed to look for five people and talk with two of her followers about the religion. The first I never saw, the second (Torm, who I also never saw) deleted almost immediatelly afterwards. In the meantime I was doing my tasks, which also took some time, and as I'm sure Voralia can attest, I took them very seriously.

- Change

I asked to be tossed of the Crew, I fully well knew that such would have consequences. That's fine. I even think you should have been much harder on me, throwing bolts and plagues at every corner, but whatever. By our second talk, all fun I was having playing an empowerment character, had already been thoroughly sucked out. The way the second talk went, didn't exactly make that any better.

You asked me to come up with answers that I didn't want to provide up front oocly. I was fully ready to accept that that meant I was taking things slow. Did going the Voralia way make things easier? Probably, but it was offered more than sought after. I don't know anything about virtues, I never saw that post. Also, I was perfectly fine going without (for a very long time).

- At the end of the day you got 400 gold and full empowerment, and you didn't do jack.

That just isn't true, I'm sure you followed me around, but clearly not during the whole time I was at the Loch, because that was a VERY long time indeed. Yes, the two tasks ended up being blanks, the first because of human misunderstanding (I don't care if you chose to believe that or not), the second apparently because of something that didn't even exist and me not wanting to go back empty handed.

-

We didn't agree in-game and I don't expect you to agree out here.

I don't blame you for doing things the way you did. But I do think you chose to react more heavily than was my intention to cause, as expressed several times. Maybe it's natural after all the #### you see from players, I don't know, I don't care.

As I said, in hindsight I should have politely declined your first mug, but how could I have known what was to follow? Maybe the conclusion is that empowerment (and cf) no longer is for me. I don't like how much time CF requires in general, empowerment is even worse.

... I don't intend to start an argument war, so this is my last post about it.

You've never heard of blueberries? For what it's worth...I'd just google purple fruit...it's like right at the top.

Honestly, CF is not about about you writing a story and then dictating that story to everyone. RP is about reacting to your environment. Sometimes the environment will mess up your story and that's fine...that's what roleplaying is. Otherwise you're just story telling and that's a kinda separate thing. It's like an improv where you tell the guy that you don't like the topic and instead you'd rather do something else...well that's not much of an improv.

Anyway I wish you best of luck with your next.

"Plump brinestar"

Is that even an existing fruit or a made up one? Anyway, it didn't make me go 'aha!' in the slightest.

Anyway, thanks for the info, I think I'm pretty good at RP, I just found myself in a corner I couldn't get out of. Happens, and it sucks.

Now to see what comes next.

n/t

but I would say Empowerment is more not for you than CF. I don't really like the Empowerment system, but I understand why it was put in place. Maybe warriors or shifters would suit you better. Then you can take a few hundred hours to figure out what you really want from life without gimping yourself/getting gimped.

Were some deeply-hued purple berries.

I'm pretty surprised it took this long for someone to mention it.

Unless it is my own.

nt

.

While those are purple, I will confirm that the fruit I had in mind was brinestar. This is a fictitious CF fruit that looks sort of like purple dragon fruit in its description...

"Treasured and cultivated by Storm Giants this star-shaped fruit has an extremely rough purple skin that smells of sea brine. Once peeled, however, the mauve and pink colored flesh smells sweet yet savory and an exotic taste that hints little of its salt-water origins.

A plump brinestar is a food, made of plant, and weighs 1 pounds 5 ounces."

I'm sure you can see why Neltouda likes it. I asked this character if they liked to go shopping, and I admit they were a bit hesitant. I gave them the gold and told them to buy purple fruit from Voralian City. Why Voralian? Because they told me they had just moved there, and I suggested that if they wanted to explore then exploring what their own city has to offer is a good start. For anyone that has never noticed the brinestar before, it it sold by Roral... that guy that sells fruits and vegetables. You know the one just off of the Ave. of Retribution.

I suppose just for something cute I'll disclose some past experiences. When I have played mortals all most all of them have enjoyed shopping. I as a player appreciate all the little trinkets that someone took careful time to describe perfectly and sell at various shops. Voralian City definitely has some of my favorite shops, but when I have a character that wants to buy stuff I almost always end up in Tir-Talath. I should say specifically thank you Amaranthe for writing all of that fun stuff. The custom flower bouquet you can find there is super cute, but my all time favorite bought item would be the gift basket from there. I have utilized the gift basket with probably every character I've had. I remember following Daevryn when his religion first opened. His religion is not the frilly sort, but I definitely gave him his various non-limited gifts wrapped in gift baskets.

Not too long ago I played a little known Herald, and I found a character from the Fortress that was a kindred shopping spirit. We were complete best friends, and our characters went on shopping dates all the time. We made going to a city an event, and we spent hours and hours sampling what the city had to offer. I understand that to many of you this sounds quite unappealing. I know I do not often play the same game as (what I often feel like) the majority of the players. That being said when I do make a character which is rare, I can always find at least one other character that enjoys spending that sort of time in CF.

I like to encourage players to have their characters interact with their environment as well as other characters in ways not limited to pk. My religion is set up to allow this. Yes you can still Pk. I mean I've had evil deathful and tattooed Scions that can appreciate the toy shop in Voralian city

I really enjoyed our interactions, and when you came to me I saw it as a huge chance to get some good RP going again since Torm and Khalida had been inactive. I wasn't sure what to do with you however, but I figured I'd give you some pretty time consuming tasks to really make sure that you char had grown into this new path.
I hope the tasks were fun even though they were time consuming. And I did enjoy the reports you provided of your progress.

I'm still not sure what the "corner" was that you got painted into.

Anyway, I hope to see you in game soon again. Try something else than an empowerment char for a change.

I love to talk to people, I love to RP, so for me that's big fun. So thanks for that.

Yeah, non-empowered likely is the best option for now. And that's also that (perceived) corner, I guess I felt restricted by the formula, so I wanted out and that had bigger consequences than I expected.

Anyway ... thanks for taking me under your wing and making it fun!