Amft - I enjoyed having you around when we were on at the same time. I might get 8 hours a week in on a good week, so it wasn't often. You were solid as a MARAN.

Thalit & everman - It's good to know there are more experts on the subject of Squires/MARAN. You should let Shok an Vyn know so they can start letting you promote. Oh wait, you were talking out of your ass. If getting full induction ever becomes about how many hours you've put in and not the quality of the character, I'll stop playing Marans. Did you like it better before where there were no mortal leaders, interview and induction were done only by imms, and there was no such thing as squire? I'm pretty sure they are happy with the system they have, despite your feelings on the matter.

Maran should most definitly be about quality. How do you explain though that CAPTAIN JIRASH was a squire until roughly 200 hours or so. Thats way too long for somebody to have to wait for the good stuff my friend. Lots of folks play this game to have fun, and when you are playing your heart out and still staying stagnate it begins to wear on people. I myself have mixed feelings about the way the fort is run currently, and to be honest, yeah I've had some 140-150 hour squires. I like it much better with Imm induction simply because there was none of the #### about having level 25 full maran over level 51 been busting his ass for 150 hour squires. At least the other way people weren't being teased with the notion that at any moment they could be promoted. They knew flat out where they stood, here its a matter of waiting and hoping, and that can be bad on player morale. I knew amft, and I must say I am still mixed on him being a maran so early from what I saw. I had two full maran that served as heroes in that cabal while he was still in his 30's, and STILL I don't know that he deserved it. Talking out my ass or not, sometimes this system works and sometimes it doesn't. The times it doesn't, you have good players that slip through and thats where the negative feelings start to come in. I don't care who you are, it starts to wear down when there's no positive reinforcement. Anyways, have a nice day. Taco Hell sounds pretty darn good right about now.

Derexal

Maybe it's just the way I look at the cabal. Playing Marans before the cabal and through it's creation, I see the whole squire thing as a boon, something so that the wait isn't so bad. The way I look at the cabal, is like I look at anything else that needs imm attention. Part of it is your own ability, part of it is a "right time, right place" thing, and part of it is how bright you shine compared to those around you. No system is going to be perfect. Make it to easy, and you have a boat load of retards with a few key people. Too hard or too situational and you get what we have now. MARAN has always had low numbers, and I'm pretty certain that's by design. I personally feel the only problem here, is people feeling they deserve it. If your character and enjoyment *hinges* upon you having MARAN next to your char's name, I just think you are in the wrong cabal. It's like playing a shok empoweree. If you get the immteraction, spiff bonus. If not, oh well, still have fun. Cause if you play a shok empoweree, expecting to have tea parties non-stop, you are going to be severely disappointed. Just my opinion from dealings with Shok and the cabal, before it was around and after.

im not gonna post specifics about incidents on his graveyard, catch me on aim if you want to know (theins on cf player site)

shrug

I deleted Monduphel, storm warrior squire at hero with 134 or something hours. I had died alot, solo defended alot, and tried to solo retrieve alot. I had also TRIED to hunt alot but 80% of my pks where I won I could not close the kill.

The next week ...maybe two weeks....somewhere in there, with my next character in mid 20's...I meet up with this Amft person who had not even applied to the fortress at the Time Mond had deleted...and this mid 20's guy was FULL MARAN!

Well. Needless to say, I tried to stick around you as much as I could, I mean heck, maybe I could learn something that I had been doing wrong with my three squires combined to over 400+ hours without getting a full maran slot.

Well. I was dissapointed in how you seemed to fizzle before I got to know you and find out what you were doing right that I hadn't been...

*Sigh* I was hoping you were just taking some time off, and I would catch you later. Ahh well.



"Death awaits ya all, wit nasteh big pointeh teeth!"

he and a couple others were the main reasons I deleted

what a joke

Maran is my favorite cabal, and it has the rp that I most identify with. However I have to agree this is one instance of total bullcrap. Amft wasn't even that old, was made a maran after god knows how few hours in the fortress. There are dedicated squires I see 200 to 250 hours old that aren't made maran. I can't comprehend what Amft did to deserve being made maran in his low low ranks. Besides maybe level sit at easy pk ranks, or level sit where no one can touch him when he retrieves. He gets near hero, then deletes, because his pk range has actually gotten hard. Shokai, Vynmylak, I love you guys, but this character was a perfect example of the flaws in the squire/maran system. I've had characters that were just on FIRE for immteraction, and being a true maran. Lately I can't even get past squire. (Given I have been playing a lot of mages lately, and they aren't my forte). Anyway, I just wished to say something just seems dreadfully wrong with the current system.

Yoiks, nothing like beating up on the dead.

My first assassin past rank 20 since Shadow, my first Fortress ( unless you want to count Warlocks). I was raised to Maran in what appears to be stunning time....I seemed to be the only Fortress about quite a bit for about a two week period, must have caught someones eyes at some point.

Don't blame me for getting promoted, and call me what's wrong with the cabal. It's not some conspiracy. I saw quite a few that I would have promoted had I the power - I was honestly shocked at how many hero squires there were that deserved better. I got lucky, pure and simple. It wasn't my decision, and it wasn't something I felt like turning down.

I had some good times, but I started getting sloppy, and logging on more and more infrequently. I decided to call it quits. My range didn't "get too hard", thank you very much.

I'm not going to say goodbyes, because I might accidently say something nice about one of you fine folks that decided to respond. Cheers.

I didn't interact with you much with Hykroln but whenever you were logged on and there was an evil on eastern road in your range I was sure I would hear Help!! I'm being attacked by Amft!!...and I always did. I remember a couple times when Jaegrudai would tell us to start retrieving when we realized that you had already started on the Vanquisher/Nightwalker. So from all my experience, you were a good fort member. Never heard anything bad about though you weren't around that much. Anyway, just wanted to post because people were flaming you for nothing that you did wrong...not your fault an imm liked you. Anyway, good luck on next if there is one.

I could say something nice.

When you were on my "who pk" list, I knew we would eventually fight... and I really enjoyed the fights we had, really. You seemed to be doing very well from what I could see.

I wasn't flaming you, hoss.

I said I wanted to get to know you better to find out what you had done differently than I had...but never got the chance.

How is that a flame?

yeah, the others flamed you, but not me.



"Death awaits ya all, wit nasteh big pointeh teeth!"

I thought , when writing my response, that I should point out that it wasn't directed at you. I didn't, I should have.
Sorry for the misunderstanding