Since there is a big gap between what powers you get as a squire/scribe vs what you get as a full Maran/Acolyte, would it be unreasonable to maybe add a third tier between the two ranks? Throw those people who have been in Fortress awhile and haven't been fully promoted something to at least not cause complete frustration. Rolinyah, who said they were at 250 hours without Maraning running, I can understand the frustration. Maybe it could be made an automatic thing, if there is a complete lack of Imm presence in the Fort. Don't know. Any suggestions, anyone?

Consider that the main enemies - Empire and Scion - both have fairly nice cabal powers by hero while Squires/Scribes at hero have just one thing, is it in balance in the good/evil struggle?

Than squire mantle. You get the use of CB and automatic allies which is the hugest power. If you go 250-300 hours as just a squire, there is probably a reason. There was a time when there was none of this squire stuff.

First, if fort got an automated promotion system, the empire deserves one too. Sometimes oaths get frustrated at lack of promotion as well. Also comparing oaths to scribes/squires. I don't think oaths get anything do they?

How do you automate it? Number of pk's? Number of retrievals? Good defending couldn't really be taken into consideration. As far as numbers that you can keep track of, I think an automated system will favor melee classes for most of that character's life. The imm promotion system isn't perfect, but I think it's better than any automated someone could think up. Plus I think it is awesome that you usually get at least a small bit of immteraction with imm promotions.

But.. look at the number of oaths you see at hero vs. scribes/squires at hero. There is a big difference there.

What about a cabal-leader promotion? I don't know about Empire because I've never been in it. Does the Emperor promote oaths or sect leader?

If there was a minor promotion availabe for the cabal leaders of fort, that might help things.

>First, if fort got an automated promotion system, the empire
>deserves one too. Sometimes oaths get frustrated at lack of
>promotion as well.
>

Honestly, oaths do not stay oaths for very long. Fortress-types would be MUCH happier if Fortress promotions/powerups were done by players and not Imms. Moreover, for some sects even the next echelon past oath is a great power.


>Also comparing oaths to scribes/squires.
>I don't think oaths get anything do they?
>


Yes, they get early and easy induction without a lengthy, involved, pain-inducing interview process. That's huge. Comparing oaths to squires/scribes is wrong.


>How do you automate it? Number of pk's? Number of
>retrievals? Good defending couldn't really be taken into
>consideration. As far as numbers that you can keep track of,
>I think an automated system will favor melee classes for most
>of that character's life. The imm promotion system isn't
>perfect, but I think it's better than any automated someone
>could think up. Plus I think it is awesome that you usually
>get at least a small bit of immteraction with imm promotions.


You don't automate it. You create certain echelons for fortress powers, make it so that only the Imms can raise the Fort-guy to the highest echelon, and allow players to promote other players below that. Now some IMMs will say "that's just a mirror of Empire; we want to create something unique". Then fine, create a unique way of player-enabled promotion. Maybe 3 guys above you have to vote you up. Whatever. 6-7 years ago I was the Leader of Knights and wrote a proposal to Cador/Shokai suggesting that Knights be separated into Healer types and Warrior types, with a council of four - two from each type, and Cador slammed me down saying it was a stupid and unimaginative mirror of Empire. Um. OK, Cador. Six years later, that is exactly how the Fortress is separated.

That's part 1.

Part 2 is evening up the powerups. Empire powers are amazing. Fortress powers are noob-friendly. The only one that really benefited my last maran was eyes. I think one well-needed powerup for maran is something like imperial spies/track the wicked. It can work with phoenix brand, assuming the brand lasts longer than it does at present. I think another would be a "clarity of mind" type power for communers/casters. Maybe for a maran it kicks in after you've struck a bad guy - sort of like ignite. There are a lot of cool things you could do with Maran powers by tying them to PKing bad guys (as in, they get incremently better until the Maran dies, at which point they're reset to base).

Part 3 is evening up how easy it is to raid the fortress vs. how difficult to raid empire. Fortress is just a few steps off a major city. This could be remedied by linking the Grove and/or KOR directly to the imperial lands, close by the palace.

I recommended adding a second approach to imperial lands as well. It's on the ask an immortal board.