Logging on, praying, and then logging out in 5 minutes or less is not the way to get empowered.

Contrary to the belief of some, the imms are not sitting there ready to pounce on any prayer sent up at any moment. Imms, even when online, are often afk, working on a project that demmands a lot of attention, or even involved in an immteraction with someone else and can't pull away that second.

I advise sticking around, exploring, socializing (even through tells while sitting in the shrine if you wish), if you don't get an immediate response. 10-15 minutes *minimum*. Anything less, and you're just shooting yourself in the foot.

Have fun!

I got lucky once for the ''Created God'' part...

But many times it went unanswered. (I prefer to create my little world ) so how can someone play it out without wasting totally his time? Note to immortals, prayers, roleplay...?

DISCLAIMER: This is just what I've done, your milage may vary.

Anything you worship is going to be "immortal". So, I would do something like:

note to The immortal Lord of the Flies

or

note to Kaela Mensha Kaine, the bloody-handed immortal Lord of War.

Get the idea? It fits IC, but OOC it gets your note to all the IMMs.

Everything else "method" wise that I did, I think I outlined below.

- Need to find a good time to find many Immortals.

- That someone has nothing to do and like your role

- That he feels like giving you some time...

I've had one succesful created god and I screwed up...attempted 5-6 times and always ended in failure...

>DISCLAIMER: This is just what I've done, your milage may
>vary.
>
>Anything you worship is going to be "immortal". So, I would do
>something like:
>
>note to The immortal Lord of the Flies
>
>or
>
>note to Kaela Mensha Kaine, the bloody-handed immortal Lord of
>War.
>
>Get the idea? It fits IC, but OOC it gets your note to all
>the IMMs.
>
>Everything else "method" wise that I did, I think I outlined
>below.

I've done neither, just used for 2 examples.

We all know the "Lord of the Flies" is a book/movie, I guess you're referring to the Warhammer 40K Eldar Avatar of War.

"Dawn of War" is why my area is 10 easy rooms from 1st upload.......

Unfortunately, I'll never play an empowered class. I want to try out a shaman or a druid, but I can be bothered waiting for someone else so I can get on with the game.

I guess it just comes down to a different style of play. My style is to solo rank my characters to about 20, and then start to interact with others.

That just doesn't fit in with the current system of waiting on an Immortal to notice you emoting at the Inn or a shrine.

>Unfortunately, I'll never play an empowered class. I want to
>try out a shaman or a druid, but I can be bothered waiting for
>someone else so I can get on with the game.
>
>I guess it just comes down to a different style of play. My
>style is to solo rank my characters to about 20, and then
>start to interact with others.
>
>That just doesn't fit in with the current system of waiting on
>an Immortal to notice you emoting at the Inn or a shrine.
>
>

I find it hard to understand why players complain about the empowerment. Having a couple of empowerment characters in my sleeves already, I felt I took a more active role when I play an empowered character than a normal one. A priest is all about preaching and thus, this gives me more opportunity to interact with gods and players.

For a priest, empowerment is a privilege. To be favoured by your god gives extra prayers and skills. Otherwise you are just a lowly acolyte. I mean if I'm playing a warrior or necro and I wanted that skill/spell, I'll be more focused on ranking. But as an empowered character I'll spend more time delving into the divine part. To be empowered, a priest-to-be has to act out the will of his god and be a leading example of how faith into reality is all about.

As for me, empowerment means:
1. Lots of opportunities for Immteraction and spotlight.
2. My Imm have to take time to know my character and interact. Being said, he/she has to put aside their work just for me.
3. An opportunity to get tattoo-ed. Since the said Imm is following me and watching me, chances of tattoo-ing is also good.
4. Putting the divine part in a role. I mean why would you react to something in your life, unless there is some beliefs/religious issues that have arose. This is of course my own opinion.
5. Taking time to reflect on what I want for my character.
6. Not everybody's cup of tea. But having said, everyone should play an empowerment character once.

Don't change empowerment. It is a very good tool for certain classes and I like it that way. As Valg said it, it's a personal touch to a character.

Nobody wants to cut your opportunity to interact with your god. You may do that from level one till death. And you are allowed to that twice per day. More than that may bother a player behind your god. We are talking about the empowerment demands, basically if you choose inactive god as your religion or your times do not overlap you are at a loss.
Automatic empowerment does not mean you should ignore your god. You can still come to shrine and pray sa often as you wish, but you also can actually play your char instead of levelsitting. For example, you may continue advance with your group/friends/followers and you don't have to say them something like "sorry boys, I must leave your group as I'm not empowered yet".
And automatic empowerment has nothing to do with tattoo-ing at all.

>Nobody wants to cut your opportunity to interact with your
>god. You may do that from level one till death. And you are
>allowed to that twice per day. More than that may bother a
>player behind your god. We are talking about the empowerment
>demands, basically if you choose inactive god as your religion

Not true. Empowerment is once again a privilege in IC point of view. Yes it can be demanding trying to contact your god for empowerment. And I'm sure the Imms cover one another when one is absent. I'm also sure a note to the said Imm will help a LOT too!

>demands, basically if you choose inactive god as your religion
>or your times do not overlap you are at a loss.

Not true. I've been empowered by Jazur (who is long dead and gone before Narissa came up), by another dead Imm (who is also long dead and gone).

I live in a timezone where you wake, I sleep and vice versa. I have had more than 5 empowerment characters in my CF life and I still find empowerment enjoyable. Never had any strings with 'up there' and no problems with someone to empower me. I find most Imms are keen to empower you if you can RP (or try to) or have a decent role to assist them understand your character.

Sorry if it didn't work out for you. Or others.

>Automatic empowerment does not mean you should ignore your
>god. You can still come to shrine and pray sa often as you
>wish, but you also can actually play your char instead of
>levelsitting. For example, you may continue advance with your
>group/friends/followers and you don't have to say them
>something like "sorry boys, I must leave your group as I'm not
>empowered yet".

Never had this problem. I log in, pray, rank up about 2-3 ranks, then pray and more prayers (plus notes and stuff and interaction with guardians, etc). I'll slow down at 15 rank as the PKers tend to grow larger. Latest empowerment is at rank 16. Most are between 9-13.

And "sorry boys, I must leave your group as I'm not empowered yet" is fine with me. Even when it is a good group and I'm a non-empowered character. So far, I don't have any issues with groupmates when I tell them early that after this last run, I'll be seeking blessings from my god. Sometimes I squeeze in another rank or more.

>And automatic empowerment has nothing to do with tattoo-ing at
>all.

Sorry if there is mis-conception about my reply on the tattoo post. Wildgirl seems to be writing about tattoo.

I still support empowerment all these years. Beats me.

>Not true. Empowerment is once again a privilege in IC point of
>view. Yes it can be demanding trying to contact your god for
>empowerment. And I'm sure the Imms cover one another when one
>is absent. I'm also sure a note to the said Imm will help a
>LOT too!

Wait til your char is 140 hours old and get empowered. Sure your character might believe its a priviledge. If you as a player think its a priviledge to sit in a room in a GAME and wait for someone to log in so you can play your character then you're a sick twisted masochist. I've found they don't usually cover each other or at least didn't when I played a few of my more arduous empowerment chars. You roll char, pray, turns out god is on vacation, so you wait, then god goes inactive altogether and now you just wasted 80 hours or you try to switch to a new imm which results in you being viewed as a flip-flopper.

Its a system that is inherently flawed and saying it isn't is outright ignorant. I don't care what any imm says, empowerment has far far less to do with roleplay (for experienced players) than it has to do with actually catching the Immortal online. I know, I've had tons of priests. I've also seen tons of morons with tattoos, because frankly not all imms are equal in how they judge good roleplay. Theerkla has it exactly right below, you eventually aim for the imms that are frequently vis and have a lot of tat'd followers, you don't pick a role really you figure out what role works for the imm you'll have to wait the least amount of time for.

Especially since a lot of the older religions were general and adapting to your character whereas many of the new ones are so specific that most followers look like cookie cutters, so you have to force roles that meet the guidelines of the imm that you're not going to have to wait two months for.


>
>>demands, basically if you choose inactive god as your
>religion
>>or your times do not overlap you are at a loss.
>
>Not true. I've been empowered by Jazur (who is long dead and
>gone before Narissa came up), by another dead Imm (who is also
>long dead and gone).
>

I honestly think its easier to get empowered by a make-believe imm than an imm thats just inactive or not playing while you are.

>I live in a timezone where you wake, I sleep and vice versa. I
>have had more than 5 empowerment characters in my CF life and
>I still find empowerment enjoyable. Never had any strings with
>'up there' and no problems. I find most Imms are keen to
>empower you if you can RP (or try to) or have a role to assist
>them understand your character.

Yeah, I play in your timezone, so do a lot of people that work during the day and night. Are we just imagining our problems? Are you trying to tell us all that we're horrible roleplayers or something compared to the people who get lucky and get empowered in ten minutes? Hopefully you aren't serious.


>Never had this problem. I log in, pray, rank up about 2 ranks,
>then pray and more pray (plus notes and stuff and interaction
>with guardians, etc). I'll slow down at 15 rank as the PKers
>tend to grow larger.

Yeah, I guess we all imagined this problem. I've done all the same things including occassionally solo ranking up as high as mid 20's. Doesn't change the fact that if you're aiming at an Imm and they aren't on your playing times you're #### out of luck.

>
>And "sorry boys, I must leave your group as I'm not empowered
>yet" is fine with me. So far, I don't have any issues with
>groupmates when I tell them early that after this last run,
>I'll be seeking blessings from my god.
>

Shrine sitting is a waste of time. If it was that fun to you, why not make chars that just randomly talk to some mob in the game for three full RL hours a week. Why don't you? Because its boring.

>>And automatic empowerment has nothing to do with tattoo-ing
>at
>>all.
>
>Sorry if I had the mis-conception about my reply on the tattoo
>post.
>
>I still support empowerment all these years. Beats me.

Empowerment is fine in concept, I don't know, I just think it should come later. I can sit at level 30 for 100 hours and do things. I can't sit at level 15 for 100 hours and do anything. Hanging out in the Inn preaching is cool and all but after a while you wonder why the hell you're playing at all.

Maybe some people can play two hours a day or just log in whenever they have to in order to catch an immortal. Maybe some people can log in at 4AM to catch an Imm. I can't. Lot of players can't. We write notes, we go to the shrine, we roleplay, all the same things you guys do, but if the Imm isn't around, that is beyond your control.

Sitting for one hour is stupid. Sitting for 20 is very, very stupid. I don't know, why not have empowerment based on note passing? Or maybe imms could like, arrange a time to meet up when its convenient for them. Most emails I've ever sent to the imms have gone unresponded to at all. Maybe I'm just unlucky, but its certainly not *fun* by any means.

I just cannot fully enjoy the character until after it has been empowered. Which means no matter how long or how short a time it takes to be empowered, that time is unfun. And I have to agree with graatch that for every character that was a breezed through empowerment, there's probably one that deletes because they gave up on ever getting empowered.

You would rather get halfway to hero, and be smacked down, than have those details worked out early? The imm usually gives you a warning about certain actions early, so you know what to avoid in the future. With an automatic empowerment system, I honestly think it would have to be a "priest beware" kind of thing. As in, don't pledge yourself to things you don't understand.

I have had over a dozen empowerment characters, and never had the degree of problems you describe. This is one of those situations where you need to choose an imm with some care. I know all the evils love Scarabeus, but sometimes he can be hard to reach. So using him as a for instance, if you have a low frustration tolerance, don't pick an imm that has unpredictable log in times. I think in all my empowerment characters only one had the problem you describe, and the imm faded away shortly after.

I don't really think the current system is flawed, but I do think we could have some kind of system to know how often imms log in. It doesn't need to show the day or anything, but how long and how many days of the week perhaps. That's my only real suggestion. Last, I would also say that if you come here with an agry/flippant/ranty sound, it's the least likely way to get something changed.

n/t

"This is one of those situations where you need to choose an imm with some care. I know all the evils love Scarabeus, but sometimes he can be hard to reach"

One of Dwoggurd's key points (at least I thought it was a key point) is that the process of empowerment requires picking an imm you think you can get a hold of, then crafting a role. If it were a perfect system, you'd craft a role first, then pick them imm it most fits. I'm not saying it is necessarily radically broken, but it is a flawed system.

Considering amount of players who are unhappy with empowerment,
I dare to admit that something is broken. 100 flies can't be wrong.

Let us look what happens under the current empowerment system:

Logging on, praying, and then logging out in 5 minutes or
less is not the way to get empowered.

That's first bad thing that was introduced by empowerment. Stop for a moment and think, why the player in the question does this "bad stuff". There is no need to construct sophisticated theories how bad or good this player is. The answer is straightforward.
He wants to get empowered ( he doesn't enjoy playing with an unempowered char ) so he tries to catch his god online. Very likely he has failed to do that while logged in his regular session, so he tries unusual times, etc.


Contrary to the belief of some, the imms are not sitting there
ready to pounce on any prayer sent up at any moment. Imms,
even when online, are often afk, working on a project that
demmands a lot of attention, or even involved in an
immteraction with someone else and can't pull away that
second.

And that is another reason to let empowerment dust away.

I advise sticking around, exploring, socializing (even through
tells while sitting in the shrine if you wish), if you don't
get an immediate response. 10-15 minutes *minimum*. Anything
less, and you're just shooting yourself in the foot.

And I advise to let people decide themselves if "sticking around, exploring,, socializing" is fun for them or not. And if it is not, I advise to investigate what caused the situation where they are "forced" to do something they do not enjoy.


Have fun!

We want! But.... empowerment don't let us...


================================================

Now let us add something constructive. Remove empowerment from the game or make it automatic.
For example add a small quest in the shrine, so a new player would have to answer a few basic questions on religion and do some basic rituals to get things done. ( Example: sect quardians in Empire )

The main purpose of empowerement is to block dumb chars from playing priests. But it can be done later. The same approach works well enough with Empire, you let everybody in and then kick out unworthy people. Immortals can watch their followers and if they do something bad, just punish them. If immortal's playing time and a player's time do not overlap ( and often it is because the immortal is unavailable ), that should not be the player's fault ( eq: not getting empowered ), consider this player just being lucky because he can get away with shady things :{, as, after all , on the other side he may suffer from a lack of immteraction.

Remember: Have fun!

Now let us add something constructive. Remove empowerment from the game or make it automatic.

No.

It's quality control on priests. We want the personal touch. Automated quests don't measure roleplay.

Immortals can watch their followers and if they do something bad, just punish them.

Can you imagine the complaining if this was remotely common? Unempowerment is a lot worse than Anathema status (which is basically 'uncaballed plus enemy cabal'), and people throw fits over that. If we were catching mid-level characters and busting them back down, we wouldn't be doing bad RPers any favors.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

>Now let us add something constructive. Remove empowerment
>from the game or make it automatic.
>
>No.

You've broken my heart.

>It's quality control on priests. We want the personal touch.
>Automated quests don't measure roleplay.

Automated quests supposed to urge a person to know basic stuff, their roleplay should be estimated during their life. 10 minutes of an empowerment interview at 5th rank isn't enough to measure roleplay anyway. Insert any different approach without involing a certain imm to be online at a certain time instead of "automated quests", it is just an example.

I understand what you want, but you can see many flaws in the current system. I agree that would be much better to have personal touch over every priest. It is obvious. However it is also obvious that on practice this scheme doesn't work well. Immortals can't cover playing times of all players, even more, many immortals are inactive ( or become inactive in certain periods ). It's life. Moreover, I don't see average quality of priests at hero level being much higher compared with other characters. Stupid characters usually die and delete at middle ranks. I believe there should found a compromise. I know many examples when people ( with quality roles and serious intentions ) just give up on empowerment and I don't think that ignoring this problem is good. Often, many ot them choose one immortal over another just because they don't have a hope to catch a certain immortal online ( on a regular basis ), they adapt their roles towards another immortal and that isn't good also.
When a first thought of player is not "What role I want to follow" but "Which of immortals I would be able to approach", something is broken.

>Immortals can watch their followers and if they do
>something bad, just punish them.
>
>Can you imagine the complaining if this was remotely
>common? Unempowerment is a lot worse than Anathema status
> which is basically 'uncaballed plus enemy cabal'), and people
>throw fits over that. If we were catching mid-level
>characters and busting them back down, we wouldn't be doing
>bad RPers any favors.

There is always place for combined schemes. You can give the first empowerment for "free" and the second one can be still done manually. At least imms would have more time to estimate the player and they player would actually play his char, not just shrine-sit at low ranks. Perhaps it is not politically correct to say this, but most of players do not enjoy shrine-sitting, though in their farewells most of them, of course, write that they had multiple orgasms. On the other side, for many immortals those empowerments become a routine also, eventually they give up. For example, YOU've given up already
I beleive there can be a good solution, we just have to admit that the problem exists and start to work on decision.

.

I honestly don't think waiting 10-15 minutes twice is too much time to ask. Yes, I hate wasting time as well, but that really ain't that much.

What I wound up doing was using the waiting time as an opportunity to expand on a little-used aspect of Theran religious life: Ritualistic prayer, worship, sacrifice, ect.

Instead of praying and waiting in silence it's a lot more interesting to do (and watch probably) some sort of hymn, song, ritual, prayer or whatever.


>that ignoring this problem is good. Often, many ot them choose
>one immortal over another just because they don't have a hope
>to catch a certain immortal online ( on a regular basis ),
>they adapt their roles towards another immortal and that isn't
>good also.
>When a first thought of player is not "What role I want to
>follow" but "Which of immortals I would be able to approach",
>something is broken.


That, I can sympathise with. I never had trouble comming up with roles, since I love creative writing, but can relate to the "Waiting for Godot" feeling, where 90% of your empowerment seems to be based on stupid, dumb luck, catching your IMM when he/she plays.

I wound up using these forums a great deal, seeing when IMMs posted so I'd have a clue when to pray, reducing the luck factor.

Now what did I do when I had a role that didn't fit an active IMM or fit an IMM that was obviously not concerned with their empowerees?

I made-up a religion and god.

Since any interested IMM could empower me, I knew it was based on the quality of my role, not stupid, dumb luck. Plus, I surmised, new, unique priest concepts are probably more interesting to IMMs as well.

My advice? I wound up with a method:

-Make character concept I'd like to play.
-See if it matches an active IMM.

-If yes:

*Write note, desc, role at level 1
*Pray/play when they post.
*Invent some form of worship appropriate to role.

If one week goes by and no empowerment, try another in-game note and e-mail/forum post.

If two weeks go by with no response/reply, delete. You've got better things to do with your life then wait and 2 weeks is long enough. Either your role sucks, or that IMM isn't worthy of your time by not taking 5 minutes to pen a reply.

-If no:

*Invent religion, Immortal before writing note, desc, role at level 1.
*Play/pray at a consistant time in an appropriate place.

If one week goes by and no empowerment, try another in-game note and e-mail/forum post.

If two weeks go by with no response/reply, delete. Your role probably wasn't unique/good enough and life is way to precious to waste

I admit empowerment ain't perfect, but I understand why it's done so we don't have bad, shallow priests and there are ways to work the system.

>If one week goes by and no empowerment, try another in-game
>note and e-mail/forum post.
>
>If two weeks go by with no response/reply, delete. You've got
>better things to do with your life then wait and 2 weeks is
>long enough. Either your role sucks, or that IMM isn't worthy
>of your time by not taking 5 minutes to pen a reply.


One or two weeks is longer than I want to invest in a character that I will end up deleting due to circumstances mostly out of my control.

About the only time I'll play an empoweree is when a hero-imm that I've seen on all the time during my plaing hours gets a new religion. That is the only reliable way I have to know for a fact that my chosen imm has playing times that overlap my own.

One of the thoughts I had was if Wis-invis didn't apply to the who list (the immortal shows up on who, but not where or can't be seen in the same room). I know the arguement against this is people will RP when their imm is about and won't when they aren't, but honestly I'm not 100% sure I agree with that. I'd like to believe people RP because they enjoy it and not because they have to.

One of the thoughts I had was if Wis-invis didn't apply to the who list (the immortal shows up on who, but not where or can't be seen in the same room).

Oh, god no.

1) Just because someone is on, doesn't mean they're available.

I know the arguement against this is people will RP when their imm is about and won't when they aren't, but honestly I'm not 100% sure I agree with that.

2) Speaking from experience, a number of players are very different when they know you're watching, vs. when you quietly peek in without announcing your presence.

There's a ton of smaller reasons. This is nowhere in the realm of possibility.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

>One or two weeks is longer than I want to invest in a
>character that I will end up deleting due to circumstances
>mostly out of my control.


I've had way more successes than failtures following "The System" but your position is a reasonable one.


>About the only time I'll play an empoweree is when a hero-imm
>that I've seen on all the time during my plaing hours gets a
>new religion. That is the only reliable way I have to know
>for a fact that my chosen imm has playing times that overlap
>my own.


Forum searching did the same for me but, again, what works for you works for you. I can't blame anyone for not wanting to gamble with their leisure time.


>One of the thoughts I had was if Wis-invis didn't apply to the
>who list (the immortal shows up on who, but not where or can't
>be seen in the same room). I know the arguement against this
>is people will RP when their imm is about and won't when they
>aren't, but honestly I'm not 100% sure I agree with that. I'd
>like to believe people RP because they enjoy it and not
>because they have to.


Heh, so would I. As in, wanting people to RP because they like it.

What would you do different to make empowerment work better?

Empowerment's imperfect, but any solution I can think of has more flaws than answers. The only thing I'd change, the imm's have resisted in the past, and that's move the empowerment requirement up to somwhere around level 17.

>If one week goes by and no empowerment, try another in-game
>note and e-mail/forum post.
>
>If two weeks go by with no response/reply, delete. You've got
>better things to do with your life then wait and 2 weeks is
>long enough. Either your role sucks, or that IMM isn't worthy
>of your time by not taking 5 minutes to pen a reply.
>

How many hours over 2 weeks are you talking here? 5 hours? 10? 15? 20? 25?

2 or so hours a day, about 5-6 times a week for 2 weeks. 90% of the time, I got an answer of some sort within a week.

I gotta be careful because I suppose there's no *exact* formula for empowerment success, but I managed to make something that worked for me, anyways.

I know there's no set formula for empowerment. But I'm going to go with Qaledus' response to my post above in that empowerment just isn't for everybody.

Spending 20 hours as a sub-11 definitely isn't for me. Thanks, but no thanks.

Two times for 10-15 minutes? Odd, I've had 100+ HOURS before I've gotten empowerment on chars. Stop ####ting if you would, I've had about 12 or so empowerment chars and I've had several take hours upon hours before empowerment and its not like I'm some sort of odd freak that its only happened to me. If you haven't waited a few times for weeks, then you'd be the oddball.

As for the ''Created God'', for the note, you send it to ''Immortal'' ? Always wondered that. Lots of fun to create a god.

Consider that an imm will be off cf, or only logged on for a short time for a while. Now, I sometimes, in fact very often play for a healthy 10 hours a day, sometimes more, but i don't have the chance tp log on for several days, then. Now, if I get unlucky, let's say I don't meet my imm in say, 8 days I play. So, I will have a goos 100 hours of on time. Now, I have two choices, a) I play my sub 20 charachter for 100 hours, which is not fun or b) I play another char to waste time, as in a waste char. I will likely have this waste char heroed by then, and loose interest in my sub 20 empowerment seeker. In addition, I have added a completely useless hero level charachter to the game. Now, as I see it the system at current often results into either one of those unwanted situations. As it is, the system penalises me quite heavily because of my playing habits.

...I'm in some agreement with Dwoggurd here. One of the most frustrating parts of the game is having to wait for someone to be around when you are, and have the time, etc. I think in the end some acknowledgment that this is a game, and meant to be fun for people, gets lost in the decision to require personal empowerments. I understand the desire to maintain a stricter control on these classes, but I think the balance is tipped a bit too much and sacrifices too much enjoyment.

I admit I'm not sure of the perfect solution, but there is almost nothing worse than wanting to get on with your character, and being a fine character, but having to wait day in and day out for the imm and you to have common log on times and then time in game to talk.

And to the those others in this thread who comment on how easy it was for them to get empowered, that's nice for you, but meaningless. Perhaps you were with a very active or often-vis imm. Perhaps you just play at the right time. But there are an equal if not greater number of people who have great, great trouble, and go weeks. Weeks they wanted to be playing the character, not waiting to be allowed to play the character.

One possible solution would be to allow other imms to step into a mob - perhaps the shrine guardian or some other suitable mob - and empower someone, even if it is not their own follower. That empowerment would only be to 30, let's say. But at least the person could play for a while and become active in the game. If they want to continue they need to speak to their own god, or that imm can send a note to other imms saying the character can be fully empowered, if that imm has watched in the interim.

Something to let someone move beyond level 15 or so without being totally handicapped.

I don't really have a problem with empowerment. That's not to say I always get empowered quickly. Rather, I don't limit myself by the fact that I'm not empowered. I still PK (within reason), rank, look for gear, do quests, etc. Basically I'd get on, pray, go solo rank for a little bit, go back and pray, gather some gold, pray again, stay in the shrine for a little bit, then quit.

Well what can I say, I agree with you on this one.

My last empowerment char I prayed to an inactive/deleted lord. And after a while I got answer he did not exist, so pulling a quick one I changed it to my own advantage.

I got empowered anyways, and I actually like the empowerment system that exist today. I usually do the same as you only I dont sit for 10-15 minutes... I sit 5 (alarm clock) then I roam out to practice skills solorank, do quests and interact.

After I started hunting empowerment and just playing taking it easy and developing the personality of my character I started getting fast empowerments. Last time I hardly prayed at all actually.

If it gets bad I allso found that sending an email for advice to the given immortal is extremely usefull aswell.

Another thing... I actualy love this level based empowerment aswell... It is sooooo nice when you get your final empowerment... The first one is scary since your idea is tested... The second is very fulfilling when you see the cool empowerment echo for the full empowerment

Keep up the good work, when all taken into consideration I only play empowerment chars these days... Gives me the most fun

Tirach.

The majority of my characters aren't empowerment characters and empowerments are never going to be a signifigant portion of them.

Simply because empowerment started off as iffy, and then when partial i.e. level-barrier empowerments came along, it went from iffy to just plain bad.

The amount of cleric type classes though in the game versus the rest are very balanced right now, though. But it's unfair that the biggest reason for this perfect balance is because so many hopeful ideas are shattered on the rocks of reality: Your god's playtimes and desire to be present and interacting with players are going to negatively impact your enjoyment of your character if you're still waiting to be empowered.

Sure there are people who often get empowered in a few days. Others don't mind waiting two weeks.

But that doesn't change the fact that a good percentage of us go largely ignored for obscene amounts of time due to naievely picking an inactive imm and NOT being pointed in a different direction. I remember one time someone was courteous enough to give an echo to a Mynawk follower that he needed to 'express his anger in other ways' because Mynawk is inactive or gone. That doesn't happen nearly often enough because alot of people are going to throw up their hands and hope someone else 'who knows better' will take care of it, and it never does because they don't want to offend the person who is largely inactive and likely wouldn't care anyway.

I've been on both sides of the coin and it's enough that the negatives drive me away. There's enough CON, time and stuff to lose on other things that you need a certain imm present to do, that empowerment just isn't worth the *overall* (i.e. encompassing all possible empowerment possibilities) slim chance that you'll get an enriching roleplay experience.


In a perfect world, empowerments should be happening in the first 20-30 hours of a character, 2 or 3 RL days, or be told that they'd be better off to delete or find something else to pray to.
Quite frankly, the skillsets aren't worth going beyond that. This isn't induction into a cabal, here. Fifty hours is absurd, and people have waited four times that long just because someone wasn't around and no longer has the desire to play.

At the very least, I'd say go back to one-shot empowerments/unempowerments upon ####ups. But that's just my calculated opinion and isn't taking into account how easy/hard each imm's difficulty varies when you actually do meet them.

How many imms get irked by characters they empower at low levels to only have them rage delete 10 ranks later? Or annoyed by the massive amounts of prayers that are sent up by chars fresh out of the box? I am sure some of you do. Though I will probably admit that my percentage of rage deletes severely decrease if I am an empowered class. But I digress.

Why not make it so that priests have full access to supplications up until the 20th rank? You could do some tweaking so that the uber powerful spells aren't available like gate and summon for healers and shamans. Furthermore, perhaps you could stress that one should NOT seek empowerment until they are of at least the 15th rank. I imagine this will tone down the prayer channel in Asgaard a huge amount.

My problem with empowerment is that THIS IS A PK MUD. Yes I realize there are many other wonderful things about this mud but I can assure you that the playerbase would be less than 20 if pk was not an option. You feel so handcuffed to do anything really exciting as a priest without any kind of useful powers.

I dont feel that this is an unreasonable request.

people offing themselves five minutes after I empower them wouldn't bother me. Their loss, not mine. I hear the empowerment prays all the time. Doesn't bother me. Do I think empowerment is perfect? Nope, I don't think anything with real people behind it ever is, especially when those people are doing something in their free time rather than as a job. Do I think some low-level automation or upping when empowerment kicks in is the answer? Nope. Don't think that'd help with the aforementioned rage deletes or prays either.

Do you think at all?

People whom I have spoken to seemed to think you have been more or less available when they sought you.

This is not the case for other Imms who have their name associated with spheres on the Pantheon but who have not empowered anyone in what seems to be years.

Empowerment isn't for everyone. A lot of players DO like sticking around, socializing, exploring, roleplaying, and DO find the empowerment experience very fulfilling and rewarding once they get it.

If you're not one of these people, play one of the other 11 available classes.

Personally I find spending a good percentage of my playtime incapable of speaking or emoting. This doesn't mean I think shapeshifters need to be fixed to suit *my* needs, it just means that won't be a class I'm going to choose.

I've spoken with player that will never play evil, never play good, never play mages, or only play mages. I know players who feel they must play in a cabal, and players who refuse to ever play in a cabal.

A lot of players don't find every possible character suited to their playstyle.

Do empowerment characters take higher priority than non-empowerment characters? Granted, a healer needs empowerment to be able go past the tenth rank, but lets say that I create a ranger with the intention that I'm going to pray to Grurk for whatever reason. Should one still pray 10-15 minutes at a time and wait for a response, or should one not be particularly expected, so I should spend five minutes in a temple and then go out and continue my business?

What you mean is someone not of an empowerment class (like a ranger) but seeking tattoo or some quest or favour. Whatever it is, you can start praying anytime you want during your life. However, for tattoo seeking, I will suggest at least 20 rank (some imms will require min. higher ranks) and above. Yes the praying process is about the same as an empowerment class, though with different emphasis, wording.

One needs to be well known in the lands to have a tattoo, or at least of some respectable status in the guild or cabal. Gods don't throw out tattoos just because you prayed often. it constitutes RP with others, PK-skills, the way how you deal with situations, tests, enemies, etc.

Hope I've helped you answer your queries.

Speaking only for myself, empowerment characters are generally given the priority. Or rather, empowerment interactions are. If I know someone is stuck at level 10 because I havn't had time to interact with them, I'm more inclined to try to *make* time ASAP even if it isn't as in-depth as I'd ideally like. With a tattoo-seeker or an rp-seeker, I'll put them on hold until I have an opportunity to give them a longer period of undivided attention.

nt