Thu Mar 24 19:29:39 2005

At 9 o'clock AM, Day of the Great Gods, 19th of the Month of the Dragon
on the Theran calendar Hammond perished, never to return.

Not had much time to play in the semi-recent past, and no inclination to play a caballed character in the recent past, so the farewells will be minimal unless anyone replies.

This was my first good aligned char in a while so I tried to make him a good char. He didn't go around saying that he was of the light, but he considered himself a good man and tried to do the right thing all the time. This often clashed with Spire policy. For example, he didn't like the behavior of the evil Provost, and he felt that if the Provost considered it fitting to influence events beyond the purview of the law, then he would do so also. However, his sympathies were with the light, so generally speaking, he'd help those of the light, including against the Provost and including in cabal politics. That said, he would not help the fortress hold enemy items, because he considered it theft by the fortress to attempt to do so.

As far as the law went, justice coupled with fairness was primary in his mind. This meant that evil chars could expect the same treatment as goods -- fair treatment under the law. To the lightwalkers that complained about him sheltering evils, his thinking was this: evils in a city obeying the laws are not doing any evil. Allowing them the same protection of the law in the cities was therefore not a bad idea, whatever they got up to outside (and he dealt with this in his own way as described above). This is why he ended up fighting to have a warrant removed from an imperial shadow (who, for the benefit of the outlander in question, which I think was Carisdisjun, I did not ask to help me -- I was doing ok alone).

This was also my first transmuter, and, in fact, the first support char I've played to high level. The class is immensely powerful in single combat, imho, but pretty weak against groups (maybe because I had no barrier). It seems terrible at retrieving. Maybe I was just always doing something wrong, but it would take me multiple attempts to retrieve even if there were no defenders, and when trying to take the fetish I could hang in there for about 4 rounds against the huntress, if I used some wands. Transmuters are one of those classes that are affected a lot by being caballed. In my opinion, tribunal, outlander, and scion transmuters are far more powerful than their counterparts not in one of those three cabals (although uncaballed have freedom of action that counts for more than any power, imho).

What I saw with this char, which soured the char, has put me off playing a caballed char again, and very nearly drove me from cf altogether. The fact that other muds all appeared to have the same problem (and also lacked "flavor") is what kept me here. The log ons and offs of all the cabals are just pathetic though. The tendency of players to wait for overwhelming advantages before seeking to further their char's ideals is bad for the game.

I also have misgivings about how, for certain classes, abs can allow woeful tactics to have some success. I can't count how often vokers abs'd and spammed lightning path spells on my blue-dragonhided self, then air spells (on my calcified etc self), then finally hit a better option like earthripple, but then returned to lightning anyway. Yet abs effectively kept them alive long enough to achieve something despite the use of some of the worst tactics available to them. In contrast, you have the chars like Drahke who use their preps tactically and achieve some impressive stuff.

I did mess up with this char a couple of times. First time was saying something ic (but really ooc motivated) to Carisjisdun about the hummingbird pendant, since I killed Cari and there was no pendant on the corpse (yes, I know who got it -- I paid some people to find out). Second time was being deputised and attacking an outlander in Galadon (I was Hamsah based at the time) after it dropped. The outlander claimed I'd walked into the Spire -- I hadn't. However, I am 99% confident that I had stupidly walked out of the gates of Galadon to try to locate them, and not noticed any falling of the deputy status as a result. At the time, the outlander mentioned it, and I denied it (which I genuinely believed to be the case). It was only after I thought about it that I remembered checking for them outside of town, and I think it was in between being deputised and attacked the outlander.

Tribs: Some of you were cool. I liked the ap I was always bitching at. Forget the name, but you failed to trust me on a raid so hit me when I used spells on you. Gave me the perfect excuse to resist using my spells to help evil tribs. That said, I warmed to your char. Arech, I liked your char. Rare to see an ap that isn't an obvious attempt at an uberpowered one. Your char seemed to have a lot of depth, and we both seemed to like learning more about Thera. Some tribs had questionable logins, that correlated rather strongly with the logouts of certain outlanders. Some tribs just talked a big game and lived a small one. I can remember recommending against the induction of an assassin applicant because he didn't want to retrieve the scales. He was opposed by a whip spec, but had me (a transmuter) to give him haste, spiderhands, flight etc, and cure eyejabs. He also had a trib AP (Arech) and a trib shifter (forget the name, but low level at the time) to help. In the end, his excuse was that even if he did raid, I wouldn't be able to stop all the outlander heroes retrieving. A crap excuse even if true, and since I didn't believe it to be true, and I was the one that would be finding out first hand, I didn't like it. He then spent his time telling tribs that it was because of him that outlanders wouldn't raid etc. However, all the cabals kept sending me tells assuming that I was with him because they all considered him a coward that wouldn't fight alone.

Melacarfina: Only met you once that I recall. Didn't appreciate your high-handedness in the Justiciars' room. The contents of the room make it clear, to me, at least, that the room is not purely for the use of Justiciar's. Also, I was only in that room because I'd just saved another trib's life there before logging out. That meant that my char didn't like you that much. However, what really swung him against you was the requirements for your "recovery". Evil stuff, yet eagerly grasped by everyone within the spire that I could see. There was no way I was going to allow anyone to profit by murdering innocents (in Hammond's eyes).

Aesrira: I wanted to try out some unusual tactics on you, which worked, I guess. However, it looked to me as if you were unlucky with your manacles. That said, I think I might have been able to finish you in the wilds if you had escaped town. Accelerate and disrupted stomach is a pretty good combination against your forms, and odds are in my favor for finding you after our fight.

Cari: Great char. Bit suicidal though. You were my first specimen for disrupt organ. I just couldn't think of what to do to stop you resting in town, until I thought of that. Worked a lot better than expected.

Outlanders in general: I was pretty impressed by your attitude towards being full-looted. I did full loot at times, but usually I didn't. That said, most of the time you had no way of knowing that. If I killed one of you in the spire, another trib often looted. If I did it in the wilds, some lowbie spamming skills looted. etc. But I don't remember a single ooc bitching session arising from this. I do believe the trib outlander war would be more fun if there wasn't so much full-looting though. It might help with the gay one-sided logings.

Onirakoth: a well played evil provost from what I saw. I opposed you ic. I approved of you ooc.

Marmaanth: I think you look like being a good imm for a cabal. You appear to spot a lot of what goes on, and you seem to have some idea of treating a newb more lightly than a vet when they screw up. "not the strongest magistrate... when it comes to brains" still comes to mind. A nice way of noticing that a certain magistrate we discussed that tried hard but screwed up was not a total waste. I am curious as to what you would have done to me for speaking out against Onirakoth in front of the fortress. My char was trying to be secretive about his plans (he did start whispering at that stage). Basically he needed to be in a more influential position to oppose Onirakoth. You can't really overthrow the Provost as Magistrate of Hamsah. Your stepping in at the early stage looked like causing problems, but at that stage I was already growing out of touch with the char and out of love with the game.

I remember some very good fights with you barely getting away, and me barely getting out at times. I think we both died at least once to each other and thats always cool. You didn't say anything bout me, but I figured I'd say good job. As for the full looting, I pretty much have determined with all my chars from a few back that I'm not even going to bother asking. I might give them a, heh, you gotta be kidding me, but otherwise, I don't care much anymore.

Reggie

Pity to see you go, still at the same time a pleasure (damn tribs are strong now compared to outlanders).

I am sorry for the cheam kill in the spire the time I tried to raid. But dont attack followers and autoassist if the owner is not in the same room in the case you had it ment your death.

Well I didnt see you much towards the end, but from what I saw I was pretty sure you were a goodie Pleasant tone not harsh spitting and so on.

I would not give up the cabaled life because of one bad experience, try a few cabals and see, maby you find one that fits yourself pretty good. And if none other cabal work try herald, hear they need some aid to get going now They are indeed not affected by mass logins and outs

Well good luck with your next man.

Viv

Lets just say that the next time I saw you the *bleep* was going to hit the fan. I guess we'll never know what would have come of it now, but it would have been interesting and I was looking forward to it. We never saw each other too much, so that made the confrentations pretty tough. G'luck with whatever is next.

-O-

Well, thank you for your kind words. I really liked Hammond as well, though I didn't see him much after my first tour of duty in Hamsah Mu'tazz. As for learning about Thera, yes, it is great fun, and as a player I was so proud of discovering that certain thing and (almost) finishing it all by myself that I couldn't help not show it to someone.

At first, I thought you were neutral or evil, especially when you started to not cooperate with me in the aforementioned event. It has to do with your rp, in a good way, because most good characters scream out "I'M A GOODIE! LIGHT*giggle*LIGHTtacosLIGHT!" I'm not sure whether you were being kind to me or it was unintentional, but you showed me where to find the final piece of the puzzle when you were looking for it yourself (I knew I had seen it before!).

Re: Assassin. Yes, bleh.
Re: Mela. Heh, I was trying to thwart her quest too. For different reasons, of course.

Once again, thank you. I like to think my character has depth. It seemed to me yours did. And, for an AP, its hard to plan to be uberpowered when you suck at teh PK and don't have ooc friends. I have much less reliable time to play now, so I really don't get bothered by the cabal shadiness. Of course, its hard to get in a cabal (and stay) when you play as little as I have the last few weeks. Hopefully that will be changing soon for me, yet I'll not be bothered by the cabal log-ins/offs still.

Peace.