I made a post on the unoffical forums which in all honesty was a thrown together ramble of opinions and thoughts to better the structure of the Fortress. However, I also wanted to form a concrete change and put it to the Immortals for discussion.

I understand with all the recent complications the Immortal staff are hardpressed meeting the demand of interactions, game-time, and fixing many things behind the scenes regarding bugs and such to bring us Carrionfields.

I also understand with this suggestion it brings that much more to the Immortal plates, burdening your already heavy load that is on a volunteered hobby. It is this time i would also like to thank you personally for everything you have done.

You could say I am a near religious light-good player, who from time to time allows his demons to come out in the form of a usually very temporary evil aligned follower to satisify my thirst and quench for blood, power, and all around evil behaviour.

Considering the timeframe i have played Carrionfields, all my characters i have put to the Fortress have being very successful, in this last year and a half i have contributed various successful characters (in achieving full status with Acolyte and Maran quite quickly) (Usually within two weeks, which roughly transfers to 200hrs) but all the while i have noticed a great flaw in the Fortress.

When i envision the structure of the Fortress, I immediately transfer to the idea of a military structure, even tendancies to the portrayal of the Templars. Religious, Zealous warriors who are structured around a code of ethics, and Tier system which one progresses through the ranks based on merit, achievement, and attitude.

There is two large changes i wish to propose. This is no insult to the current Immortal leaders, I think they all do an amazing job and all my interactions with them have been very favourable. However, what has always plagued me was, even to stem to when i was the Captain, was the lack reward that was shown to very worthy players, both in roleplay, and pk ability. I think the biggest problem with this stems to the fact that you are a squire (level 1 mantle) or full blown Maran.

That is why i want to propose the Tier System, which while it reflects like the empire, differs greatly because it is strictly controlled by leaders, and not tier 3 (elites).

Writers note: To save from exposing to much information about the current way Mantle works, Level 1 refers to the mantle given as worn by a squire. Level 2 refers to the mantle Maran status gives at level 40. Level 3 refers to the mantle maran status gives at hero.

Tier 1: Entry Level position:
Title: Squire
Ex) : Ardryll the Champion of Virtues.
Abilities: Mantle (Level 1 Maximum)
Very similiar to the current role of the Squire, this entry level position is a time to flesh out their role, ambitions, and make their mark within the Cabal.

Tier 2: Medium level position:
Title: Templar
Ex) : Ardryll the Champion of Virtues.
Abilities: Mantle (Level 2 Maximum), Phoenix Blade, Eyes.
This status is rewarded based on Merit, Pk success, contribution to the Cabal, and is an intermediate level reward given to promising Characters.

Tier 3: High level position: Veterans, Heroes.
Title: Maran
Ex) : Ardryll the Champion of Virtues.
Abilities: Full-Powered Marans.
These are the full fleshed out veterans who have made an sincere impact within the Cabal. This does not mean they must be PK success, but rather have also shown distinquished roleplay, and whos presence makes an impact.
Honorary positions: Purely a strict roleplay aspect, they can also be put in charge of one of the three Tiers, They are the Platoon leaders, Squad leaders who are with the men on a daily basis giving guidance, inspiration, and leadership. It is also their eyes which contribute to recommending players for promotion to the Leaders.

Tier 4: Leader positions:
Title: Leader.
Ex: Ardryll the Champion of Virtues, Captain of the Brigade
Ardryll the Champion of Virtues, Marshall of the Fortress

These are the commanders, the leaders, their titles may change with the introduction of this tiered system, it may change to Grandmaster etc.

This is where the second proposed change comes in, Promotion being also in the hands of the leader versus imm based reward. One of the things which also always bothered me was always seeing in the PBF's couple hundred hours in, if you see him do something cool, promote.

The honorary positions, the leaders, will see on a daily basis what a player contributes, his roleplaying, his contribution to the cabal in both leadership, reraid and raiding situations. I've seen many times over many characters that dont seem to get the reward they deserve, when others seem to burst through the ranks because on paper (Role entries, pk statistics etc) and other things immortals can view put them over the top, when on a daily basis they are #### players.

Immortals cannot always have eyes on the players, and i think the leaders being in the trenches gives a far better idea of what the player is contributing. The leader is not always their as well, but combined the two cover a far greater spectrum and alot less people dont fall into the cracks because they dont fall on immortal times, etc etc.

I more then welcome any imput you have.

n't

and I am not personally interested in working on this.

squire tier is supposed to be a newbie tier, yet in practice you have to get two recommendations and a PK win or two to even get to talk to the leader. I think there's something wrong with that kind of system.

After all, squires have only one power that pretty much covers their essential need to detect evil in order to stay functional. Personally, I think it would be good to make an additional middle tier to Fortress, allowing cabal leaders and immortals to promote squires into this tier, with need of some required merits, such as evil kills. As for squire tier, there could be two ways of entry: An induction by cabal leader or being vouched in by two full Marans. This way Fort leaders wouldn't have to think up extra conditions to narrow down the amount of applicants they have to meet.

I have to agree with you there. The main problem with the system is
that depending on the cabal makeup at the time, getting reccomendations can be a hassle. A lot of people dont like to interview. Normally as a leader I dont always require interviews, cabal that it can work good in are tribunal and empire as everyone in the cabals runs around with signs over thier heads proclaiming membership. For outlander it would be an absolute headache because of Chamealeon. I think if you make it a requirement for entry, then the current members of the cabal need to be asked to activly seek out applicants and request them to have interviews with them to lower the frustrations of applicants, as most applicants are probably out trying to level and or pk. They are going to have a rough time trying to figure out who all to ask for recs as if they are always sitting outside the cabal trying to figure out who is in it, then they arent being very productive, and dont we all want productive cabal members?

You'll end up with way more people with more powers, because it makes life easier for people to give their allies more powers. I could see this working when fortress is the underdog, but not when they are not.

The thing about the Empire is that when empire is most numerous, promotions come at the expense of someone else.

nt

Tier 1: Entry Level position:
Title: Squire
Ex) : (Fortress)(Squire)Ardryll the Champion of Virtues.
Abilities: Mantle (Level 1 Maximum)
Very similiar to the current role of the Squire, this entry level position is a time to flesh out their role, ambitions, and make their mark within the Cabal.

Tier 2: Medium level position:
Title: Templar
Ex) : (Fortress)(Templar)Ardryll the Champion of Virtues.
Abilities: Mantle (Level 2 Maximum), Phoenix Blade, Eyes.
This status is rewarded based on Merit, Pk success, contribution to the Cabal, and is an intermediate level reward given to promising Characters.

Tier 3: High level position: Veterans, Heroes.
Title: Maran
Ex) : (Fortress)(Maran)Ardryll the Champion of Virtues.
Abilities: Full-Powered Marans.
These are the full fleshed out veterans who have made an sincere impact within the Cabal. This does not mean they must be PK success, but rather have also shown distinquished roleplay, and whos presence makes an impact.
Honorary positions: Purely a strict roleplay aspect, they can also be put in charge of one of the three Tiers, They are the Platoon leaders, Squad leaders who are with the men on a daily basis giving guidance, inspiration, and leadership. It is also their eyes which contribute to recommending players for promotion to the Leaders.

Tier 4: Leader positions:
Title: Leader.
Ex: (Fortress)(Leader)Ardryll the Champion of Virtues, Captain of the Brigade
(Fortress)(Leader)Ardryll the Champion of Virtues, Marshall of the Fortress

Emperor, Commander, Chancellor, Nightreaver, Sunwarden, Harbinger, Drillmaster all very powerful sounding leaders. From your post on the unofficials "High Templar" or the like just sounds better and factors more into their quest for purity and vanquishing of evil. I think the fortress dogma needs a bit of work on why they are there what their purpose is and how it is structured as well.

I like the idea of having a "goodly" empire which would mean they could directly battle and be more like Knights/Maran than they are right now. Which is a bunch of goodies all in the same cabal kinda having different responsibilities but when you attack it, they all just come running like it is one single cabal which it is (Fort).