I will start off by saying that I have been playing this game for a number of years but I have only joined a cabal once. Although I really liked the gameplay, I have since then avoided joining cabals for the pressure and fear that I must defend my cabal even when I know I cannot match up against the attackers. I have returned after a year since playing and feel like I am "returning home" but am also saddened by the reduced playerbase, but that is another story.

Coming back to cabals, I am chiefly interested in playing battle, fortress and nexus.

My question is, do I need to run back to the cabal when:

a. a lowbie or a highbie knocks on the cabal guardian

b. when it is attacked and there is a good chance I can fend off the attacker

c. when it is attacked and I know I hae very little to no chance of fending off, and am very likely to die.


Related to the question above is: What happens if I don't return to defend? Will I be kicked out of the cabal? Will I be given some coward title? (I remember vaguely seeing something like that in the past)


I suppose I am a little new to the game and am not a fantastic pvper. In fact, most of my high level characters have been fodder (except for my ranger which just stayed camoed mostly) and I have a hard time eluding the scions, imperials, evils. I generally play neutrals or goods and seem to get steamrolled a lot.

I do want to explore cabal life and roleplay more, but am fearful that I am just going to get killed and looted even more than normal.

Basic spelling

n/t

nt

Heh, set your MS Spellcheck to use British English and see what it says.

that's the whole reason why we broke away from the british, cuz we got tired of the way they spelled things, and wanted to spell words right.

Cabal Defense is not original and thus has no place in CF.

This isn't why guest posting is turned on for Gameplay.

>Basic spelling

The real answer is that it depends on the cabal and its leadership at the time.

My answer: generally, if your cabal is being raided, you should show up.

In answer to your fears, that will get you killed more than if you were uncaballed -- but it will also help you to become better.

Another thing to do if you see the force is too great for you could be to go and start hitting their outer guardian. This will aid you in your retrieval and can also at time make them stop for the moment to come and try and get you instead.

With many of my characters I've had the same problem, and (hopefully without coming across as arrogant) I am pretty good at pk.

The problem is, by the time people raid, they have overwhelming force, where there is significant risk of me being permalagged until I die.

Usually I still go back to defend, but that's partly because most of my characters can access a lot of preps that others don't.

The problem comes that people don't raid when it is a vaguely fair fight, and wait until it isn't. Also that cabals combine to raid. Other day I was on and I had to defend against 3 in my pk from one cabal, one in my pk from another (definitely working together -- they freely admitted it), and another healer outside of my pk. 3 of the 4 in my pk were of higher level than me (significantly so in one case). And this character of mine that had to face this isn't even a particularly powerful one. Somehow I didn't die but that was mostly luck. Even the raiders said that they were surprised I'd come.

That said... what I do is cabal dependent. For example, as an imperial, I'll be more likely to turn up because of demotion. If someone wants to demote you, you'd better not give them an excuse. Scions tend to be a bit more pragmatic, in that if it is definite suicide, most scion leaders will advise you not to turn up. If I know someone is just "knocking", most will say not to turn up if it will disrupt whatever else I'm doing too much. If cabals ally against you to raid, its often better to wait until one has taken it, and retrieve against just those people from one cabal (unless the other cabal also sits there).

As battle, you often have a decent chance of killing someone before they take you down, so it is worth turning up in many cases. Also a full loot isn't quite as disruptive as it can be for other warriors.

"I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor, dumb bastard die for his country."



I've played long enough that I can determine whether or not I have a chance of making them flee or killing them before the fight begins. If there's a good chance that I can't do either of those, but still make it out alive, because my enemies don't have the ability to lag, I'll usually return. I'll return because I might get lucky, or I might get recognized by cabal leaders or cabal Imms. I probably won't return if there is a strong chance of me dying. I will opt to fight another day and just retrieve later on, when the odds are closer to even.

There is nothing wrong with playing the game to your class ability and player ability.

But to each their own.