Sometimes you just want to get in and start playing the game, without spending several days ranking up a character, roleplaying, or learning critical skills. What I am suggesting is a second "Speed" server for CF, on a different port. The purpose would be allowing people to try out many different character combinations and PK situations without having to invest hundreds of hours into a character.

The world would be the same as regular CF, except all area explore places would be inaccessible so knowledge of them isn't abused in the real game. Additionally, there would be no Immxp for roles, no observe/explore/commerce experience, no ABS, and subsequently no edges unless set by Imms. Also, ticks would happen much faster, maybe every 5-10 seconds, making things like tracking mobs and spellcasting/healing much more of a factor.

RP would suffer, obviously, but that would stay the focus on the original CF world and not so much on the speed world.

Everybody would start out at level 1 just like in CF, but would have a very different lifespan. The maximum age could be 20 hours, and each death would take 1 con. You would start with max stats, all skills/spells at 75%, and each time you level you would get 5x the normal skill gains.

Rather than ranking, there could either be quests done that would automatically advance you to level 5, 10, 15, etc. Or else we could have 10x experience when killing mobs.

The cabals would also have automated quests, which you could request from the cabal guardians on induction, and leadership would automatically go to whoever is the most senior person (they would get no age/con bonuses, and cannot induct, but can kick people).

This would be a good "test server for the rest of us", since CF is a huge timesink. We've all put in hundreds of hours into a character that we find out is much better on paper than reality, and it's been a waste when we gave up on that char. And it could be a lot of fun to just jump into a char and get to 51 over a weekend, not having to worry about skills, not really caring about dying or ranking, and just playing to have fun.

And the knowledge gained would help travel back into the real world in having players who are more knowledgeable about their world and how various classes matchup and playout at higher ranks.

I know, it sounds crazy. But I would play it, atleast part time while I'm trying to "get into" a new character on CF

n/t

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

nt

There are a lot of problems with this idea, but the major ones include:

It would take the coders on CF a long time to make all the changes you listed. I would rather see them improving and maintaining “regular” CF than something like this. My guess is all of the changes you've mentioned would be hundreds of hours of planning, coding, and testing; for what exactly?

Despite being stripped down and less “serious”, this version of the MUD would still need to be policed. That means less Immortals policing regular CF, or at least doing so with less of their full attention.

PK on CF is largely based on experience. It isn't fair that you can spend a couple hundred hours mastering all of Thera on a dozen throwaway chars you didn't have to put any effort into, whilst others (and those before you) do it by playing a handful of characters over a period of years.

The list goes way, way on.

You described an “alternate” version of CF so different than CF, most of what you would “learn” would not even apply to the real CF. The Immortals might as well just release the code, areas, and all their notes as a “CF Guide / Walkthrough” and sell it for $19.99 at the local GameStop, because that's basically what this would become.