I'm still bitter that I haven't got to try any of the changes placed after my orc's delete thread, but from what i've seen since i've come back orcs could use a final little bit of tinkering to achieve your vision of what the race/class was supposed to be like. Primarily I think orcs need more interesting lives. You do a lot for them as far as immteraction (more than most imms do for their cabals), but more is needed. The majority of people i've talked to complain of rampant boredom once they reach higher levels, mainly because there are so few other orcs around and the fact that most of the intrigue going on at those levels is cabal related. I propose two major sets of changes, one from a roleplaying standpoint and one from a class mechanics standpoint.


First off, orcs need to be allowed into cabals. The vast majority of heroes these days are either cabal'd or pure explore chars. I almost never see any orcs past the high 30's, for the most part I only see the chieftan. Pre-changes any orc i'd see in hero range would almost ALWAYS be a member of a cabal. This would be a fairly radical change, but I propose that orcs be split into two tribes and have one associated with each evil cabal. Each cabal would have it's own unique relationship with the orc tribes. For example, Empire could use them mostly as mercenaries and keep a sort of detached air from them. A seperate hall could be built (the vanquisher won't allow them inside but the inner guardians tolerate their presence for raiding situations) and the orcs gain some very minor cabal powers. Instead of donating they get cash rewards for things like killing enemy cabal members or retrieving the codex, similar to the bounty system. They could even be used to accomplish activities that would otherwise tarnish the "orderly" image of Empire. Finally there'd be a visible result of Empire's supposed wealth rather than having the feeling that your donations are disappearing into some black hole.

Scions I think could be more loose and basically treat them the same as any fighting class they allow into the fold. In addition to being able to join in (to some extent) cabal intrigue, orcs could now have an everchanging relationship with the other tribe. Two chieftans would dispel some of the complaints of having the possibility of getting chieftan powers blocked by a single player with limited time to devote to cf. Overall I think this would just give an orc's life more depth. Most people seem to delete early and just experience it as a mad lowbie bashfest which gets extended by about 5 levels or so if you make it to savage feeding (I do realize this isn't necessarily your fault, a lot of orc skills are severely underused... there's just a general lack of highly skilled players playing orcs to act as rolemodels).


The second thing I think orcs need is an addition of two skills. These skills will be aimed at improving game balance for hero orcs and encouraging a tribe mentality.

First skill-Orcs desperately need to get something as they approach hero ranges similar to how warrior's get legacies. Specifically, they need something that allows them to even the playing field against all those unbashable communers/mages that are dealing out massive damage/maledictions while heavily protected with spells/sups. I don't have a specific idea for this one (people feel free to post any you have), but ideally it would be some type of mode they can set or an automatic skill. If it's a mode then perhaps it can have some serious disadvantages to their ability to cope with fighting classes (loss of savage feeding maybe?). Basically I kind of look at orcs like pre-legacy warriors. They don't need quite as much, but something powerful as about 1.5 legacies that allows them to deal with this huge subset of classes they're weak against (I realize it's intentional to have classes you're particularly weak against, but orcs are a little too skewed in one direction).

Second skill-I'd like to see orcs get some sort of skill that allows a group of three orcs to rationally rank together and kill mobs for eq. This skill would be only usabale in a group of 3 or more orcs and be something that emphasizes their ability to gang up on a lone mob or person. The tanking orc would be able to to employ an entirely defensive posture. He'd get only 1 attack per round and not be able to execute any of their other skills, but he'd have a ton of damage reduction. This would only be usable when orcs are fighting a single opponent and the damage reduction would only apply to physical melee damage. I visualize this as a sort of heavily modified pack animal attack behavior where the toughest "leader of the pack" requires the animal's full attention while the other ones sort of dart in. From a gameplay standpoint i'd like to see a progressive damage reduction as the orc increases in levels which ultimately allows a group of three orcs to effectively rank until they have to move on to something more difficult than say... the battlefield. The skill would then diminish in usefulness requiring orcs to make other arrangements or allies for quality ranking past the high 30's or so. I think this change would tighten bonds between clanmates as well as swell the ranks of the tribes, especially in the lower levels. This would give the class the environment i think you originally intended, a bunch of orcs running around or hiding in your home encampment and a lot of people to bicker/brag/taunt/complain on the orc cb. It also would help orcs with re-equipping, which really ####ing sucks. I think abernyte had a similar comment where it was even difficult to re-eq with an orc that has rager powers.

One last quick request for skills. I was really excited when I got enslave. I had a ton of ideas for troll/gnoll/kobold etc... mobs that I wanted to go try and enslave. I figured it was prolly the fact that most of them are aggressive to lowbies, but I was really bitter when I found out that almost every mob I tried couldn't be enslaved. It left me with that same mundane set of obviously progressive choices in the encampment, that skill could be a lot more fun.

Anyways, so ends my essay. A lot of things that have been on my mind for a while and I finally got around to posting them. Tell me what you think.

Allowing orcs entrance into the various cabals runs counter to the aim of the class. The idea is that you have this horde of orcs running around whipping ass. If you divide the clan based on cabal affiliation the chances of this horde existing diminishes. What Scion orc is going to group up with a Rager orc and go a rampaging? Hell, with the divisiveness between Scion and Empire what Imperial orc is going to group up with a scion orc and go rampaging? The answer is none of them. What happens when the Imperial orc becomes chieftan? Does he exile all of the Scion orcs?

The best course of action for orcs and their involvement in cabals is to make them their own cabal. You've got all the makings for it, you just have to have Tremblefist take cabal objects and tweak the gate guards to bar entrance.

What this does is provides the playerbase with a true noob cabal, one that you don't even have to interview to be a part of, one that you are automatically in as soon as you roll up. That alone I think increases the number of orcs and makes the whole concept of the orc berserker more playable.

The point is to divide them into two different clans. The relationship between the different clans, amongst the clans themselves, and between the chieftan and his/her possible cabal is not set in stone and left up to particular players, that's what makes the mud fun. And no, I did not suggest orcs be allowed into ragers again, I don't think that will ever work. However newbie friendly a true clan environment would be, I don't believe Scar intended for orcs to be like a newbie cabal. I also don't think it was intentional to have so few high level members, which is what the class has lost since their departure from cabals.

The division of the clan by cabal affiliation ultimately would be more detrimental to the class than beneficial. Even when orcs were capable of getting into cabals their numbers wouldn't have supported separate clans.

The only way CF is ever going to have a true orc horde is if the clan remains cohesive.

nt