Okay, I'm sorry for the forum necromancy here, but... This particular topic is a jewel.

Over the last week I've been kicking around an idea for a mage cabal that might possibly be implemented. Honestly, It's practically Warlocks with with a few slight twists and turns. I know you've all probably seen it before, but here's my proposal, minus a few things that I'm still working on-


Here's a potentially stupid cabal idea...

"Warlocks Revisited"-

Goal-
Vanquishing evil in a similar way to the Fortress, though specifically the magic users. Prevention/destruction of cults. Sealing the Scion Chasm itself.

Enemies-
Scion
(Village indirectly due to being mage cabal)

Leadership-
Two leaders
--Preceptor (foresight, IE: cloak and dagger spy type things. RP branch)
--Inquisitor (PK branch. Battle orientation and coordination. Cabal Top Kick)

Applicants-
Shapeshifters
Conjurers
Transmuters
Invokers

(Applicants must have knowledge of the classes, must be of rank 20 minimum to apply/pledge, must know the goal/history of the cabal, should know a little about the Scions, but the basics would do)

Potential startup cause-
Group of mages go to the Chasm in an attempt to either close the Chasm entirely, or try to steal something from them. (Still working the whole thing out)

Cabal powers are still in the works. I'm trying to design them based on balance of the current game without making casters too overpowered, and making the cabal itself overpowered.


When I have more, I'll post it here as a reply to my own message. Comments/Questions/Feedback, if you have ANYTHING to say, I'll read it, and reply.

(edited to add to goals)

I think the Fortress does a good enough job of balancing the evil, for the most part.

I'd like to see a multi-alignment mage cabal though, with each sector having different focuses and goals, but the same overall goal.

I would exclude necromancers from this cabal. It's always felt like even amongst mages, that the negative plane the necromancers draw their power from is shunned somewhat. Could be wrong about that though. Plus I think necro's have good options already in Empire and Scion.

Balancing evil is less the idea of the cabal. It falls more around preventing the formation of cults, and it focuses on getting rid of scion via PK, or by closing the chasm itself.

If it wants to vanquish evil, Why is Empire not it's enemy?

Why do we need one more cabal to fight a small evil cabal with limited member count and four enemy cabals already?

Why not just give Fort mages a bit more magey powers instead of making a new cabal?

.

While I'd love a mage-oriented Cabal to act as a direct foil with Battle, I'm with Nep in that I'm waiting for something more original than "Masters-With-New-Powers".

The main problem with Masters (since you asked) was that the general Cabal philosophy boiled down to "Gank Battle" and "Collect Shinies". In other words, there really wasn't a guiding philosophy behind the Cabal. Warlock had a better philosophy behind it, but it really only added "Destroy Evil Magic" to the above two concepts, which just wasn't enough to keep it viable.

The problem with most of the mage-Cabal suggestions thrown out there, by players and Imms alike, is that the philosophies are all still very one-dimensional - a Cabal of mages that, well, act mage-y. Whether you color it as "seeking magical knowledge", "learning new magic spells" or "perfecting the mystical art", these are all things that pretty much all mages do anyway. Not all assassins hate magic (some hate Evil); not all rangers protect the wilds (some are Scions); not all APs are criminals (some are Tribunal). Until we come up with something new, exciting, original and interesting, we're not going to cover that particular hole in the Cabal war structure with a simple neo-Masters patch. We've done that, and didn't like the way it played out.

I'm actually (partially) with Xaannix in that I'd rather see a more dynamic twist to a Cabal, that actually allows them to work towards (with visible progress or setbacks) a tangible goal. One problem with that is avoiding the "rich get richer" syndrome, where progress towards said goal is equal to increased powers, thereby leading to more progress, more increased powers, etc. The other problem is designing a system that isn't Imm-intensive - we are volunteers, so asking us to rewrite the descriptions for, say, Balator on a weekly basis just isn't going to cut it.

Remember, the basic reason behind Cabal wars is to provide an RP framework that leads to "forced" conflict between characters. If we do want to have a Xaannix-like apocolypse that removes the underlying Cabal war structure, I still think we would need to "replace" it with a similar framework to encourage RP and conflict. Whether it's city-state vs. city-state, a guild-sponsored conflict, race-wars, what have you, the challenge is to build something similar enough to be viable, but different enough to be interesting and...well...different.

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

the fact that imms do not want to have to rewrite stuff on a daily basis as you mentioned or to have a system that is extremely imm intensive. I completely sympathize.

Would it be possible to set up the area changing by conquest based on certain variables which automatically do what an imm would need to do? Basically automate the system so you guys dont have to watch it all the time and change it yourselves? You would not have to drastically rewrite the area. For example, with Balator being conquered by Empire you can add a few imperial banners around on the road and 5-6 imperial mobs walking about on the road. By banners I mean: "A tall iron pole is here flying the Imperial Colors." Also some code that automatically lowers prices by 20% for all imperials. It would not raise prices since that would hurt new players and uncaballed. Other chars get no loss and no benefit either. IM not exactly sure how complicated or how easy that would be to do.

Rich get Richer
I dont think that can be stopped, however it can be heavily slowed down to the point where it becomes extremely tedious and difficult to reach the next level of power. This is true in RL as well. Look at the Roman Empire. It gets bigger and bigger, but exponentially tougher to control. At one point it gets so big that existing technology and resources prevent it from controlling its conquests. After a certain size if the flow of resouces is interrupted, the results are catastrophic and the downfall is very quick, hence it will undergo, before anything else, an internal collapse. Anyway, again the Empire example. How I think this "Rich get Richer" problem can be partially solved.

Lets say that Empire gains more benefits and its powers grown in effectiveness the larger it gets. This increase would be done in stages. I will shorten the example for the sake of practicality. When you conquer 1 region aside from imperial lands, you gain a noticeable bonus in powers and a small increase in required donations. However you will not get a power bonus every time you conquer a region but you WILL get an up of the required donations.
You get power bonus only in conquering region: 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21. So you either have to significantly step up individual donations or get a bunch of new members. Eventually you will not be able to maintain the cashflow to maintain your conquered territory. If you dont maintain the cashflow for say a CF month, maybe the cabal gets a message like this.
Stage 1.
"Rumors of a rebellion in X have reached the Empire's ears."
Stage 2.
"The rumors of rebellions are true, there is a massive uprising in X. Funds are insufficient to raise an army to supress it."
Stage 3.
"Dreadful news, province X has slipped from the Imperial Fist!"

At this point Empire lost the province X, area. The effect is snowball like. Once one falls, the others will follow even faster if the donations required to maintain the territory are short 50% of the time.

Anyway, the idea is that even though you get some major bonuses from the conquest, it gets exponentially tougher and tougher to maintain it. Eventually you can lose all the ground you conquered if players dont log in the cabal since these events keep happening without players. However, it cant be so tough to conquer everything or at least every major area, that its impossible to accomplish. Fine balance there. Every cabal can have a counterweight to its expansion and gain of power. All power comes at a price! All this can be done automatically, I think. But since im not a coder, i have no idea what it would imply in terms of functionality.

Regarding the RP, i do think that a similar framework needs to be provided for people to RP. It can be a new kind of RP that actually has direct consequences, your actions not only affect you (lossof powers, bonuses, imm punishment) but they also will directly affect your cabal without an imm having anything to do with it. The cabals dont necessarily have to be the village or empire or tribs or whatever. And even if they are, adding the element of player/cabal/RP influence in the game without significant immteraction, may spice things up to the point where you may not need new cabals. Who knows, eventually, maybe we can develop a "conquest" (not every cabal will conquer) system that is so sophisticated that cabal wars will become a game of chess, a strategic and tactical challenge for its leaders.

I believe this feature will also attract hordes of new players.

The highly intelligent mages of Thera band together, bringing all their knowledge into one place so that they can educate the masses in the safe and proper use of magic. They enforce standards that say a person need understand/master the magic they have before they use it. You can't cast word? Then you should have a potion of recall.

Their singular uniting cause? Death to the stupid.

High Sorceror: Bring me the heads of giants, duergar and imm-paired gnomes. All of Thera will be educated.

Generic Darkelf Leader: Thera! All your cabal items are belong to us. Thank you please.

Third Wheelmage: And their donation pits. Which might have magic in.

Generc Elfmage: We can help everyone, through killing and full looting them. I can justify it by spamming giggle and hug at the inn afterwards.

Third Wheelmage: Educate! Educate! I am the deathful Teacher of Thera!

Generic Elfmage: And I am the Professor of Pain.

Generic Darkelf Leader: Cut+paste catchphrase!

Crazy Halfie: I saw a rager use a potion once.

Generic Darkelf Leader: In Magical Thera, potion drives you.

If the goal is to create a foil of a cabal that seeks to destroy magic, then the Village's antithesis should be a cabal that promotes the widespread use of magic. The powers I've listed below reflect this bent, and some ideas to that end are listed below in no particular order or power-level:

Awaken:
Imparts the ability for people to detect magical forces to anyone whom the cabal member wishes. Awakened individuals will feel when magic is used within the area or when magic enters an area, whether it is a spell effect or magic item. If looking upon another character, an awakened person can gauge their mana in a way similar to detect magic.

Store (skill):
Places an amount of mana into an object, which may be withdrawn at a later time. Items storing mana in this way will glow with magic.

Tap (skill):
Withdraw mana stored in objects via Store. This does not increase one's overall mana, but provides a quick way to replenish depleted mana.

Construct Node:
Increased mana regen and spell effects...for anyone. Nodes can be seen by awakened people and anyone with the ability to detect magic. The inner guardian of this cabal routinely creates a node.
Note: trying to conjure within a node is possible, but the conjured entity will have a vastly increased ability to resist binding and destroy the protective circle.

Enchant:
Create (typically single use) magic items. Any malevolent effects will decrease with improvements in this ability. There is a monetary cost as well as heavy mana cost associated with the manufacture of items.

Embue:
Grant to a mundane the ability to cast a particular spell or use a wand/stave/scroll. The caster loses the ability to cast that same spell or use that same skill for the duration of the embuement. Embued characters will glow with magic and must be willing recipients of the spell. A character may receive multiple embuements and embuements from multiple spell casters.

Champion:
Mages need intelligent defenders, but they are not going to repeat the error that led to the formation of Battle by granting them permanent abilities. A mage within this cabal can designate one or more champions and grant them access to Battle-like abilities for a duration.

This list is a little short if the cabal is to have differentiation by member rank or sects, but I think it is a good starting point.

Basis: mages of Thera want to throw in their support to the one true Cabal to guide Thera.

Function: mages in the cabal get to be interned to cabals that suit their alignment for a peroid of X. After serving a cabal for that time they unlock a power of the Mage Cabal appropriate to the service they rendered. Mages interned must adhere to all of the tenets of the Cabal they are interned to.

This sort of implementation would be fun because members of the Mage cabal could be at odds with each other due to internships. Also being true neutral would allow a mage to serve the most cabals therefore earning the greatest amount of insight.

If the Imms wanted to at a chosen time they could dissolve this guild and have it incorporated into the appropriate Cabal. ex Warlock restored in the Fortress.

Why not have city states? The old ancient world had them, medieval world did. Every city had its goodies and evils its heros and itss thieves and assassins? Its warriors and kings and queens?

Each city would be responsible for upholding the law within its territories and walls. To join a city would be like you join tribunal. You can set up 5 Major cities. Seantryn, Galadon, Hamsah Udgaard and Voralian. You join the city standing army. You can be good or evil or whatever, doesnt matter. You get lower prices in your own city and higher prices in other cities. Sure, every city had commodities that were better or worse than some other cities.

Then you can have cities that have certain skills or certain ways of fighting/defending. Some magic, some not. Look back at Sparta, Babylon, Rome. Maybe udgaard likes to put the heads of its fallen enemies on spikes two steps out the gate. Maybe 90% of the members of this city army are evil. Every city would have its own theme.

Maybe have a system in which if a city state holds the cabal item of another city state for 2500 hours, its influence spreads into that city and the conqured city ceases to be a city state.


Well, this was another suggestion.

is the lack of dynamic RP. Nothing you do really influences anything. The main reason I hardly ever RP beyond the trivial is because you really cannot alter anything, you have no way to influence the world around you. From the lowest peon to the emperor, none of them have any consequence in Thera other than get the item, defend the item, get the item, defend the item. The first time I rp'd i changed something. The thief guild in galadon, made the rings, a code, etc. The second time I got tattooed but couldnt really do anything else. Thanks to the imm who made it happen. I tried, things are immovable. Cabal leaders die and nothing happens, a cabal is obliterated, all its members killed for weeks on end and nothing happens. Nothing. Marans dont have their item for a week and its all the same, like it was never gone. Villagers kill millions of mages and still the immediate area of the village is recall/teleport. How does the power and influence of the village grow? Cabals have the same influence in thera that CF has in the real world.

I want to see some change that makes characters have consequences for Thera and for their cabals. I know its a lot but hey, if i could help I would. If i could donate money and things would get done faster (whatever it is you are doing) I would. I had to say it, sorry.

If an emperor decides to conquer balator, let him. Add a few extra imperial mobs in there, change the desc a bit and you got an imperial town.

Imagine if the village influence spread to where half of eastern was no recall/no magic/no telepot? All because the village is kicking ass, dont lose their item, kill mages, dont dishonor their code.

But having a world that is dynamic based on the deeds of the characters within would be pretty cool. It would be a breathe of fresh air to have mortal-driven events actually impact the gameplay things; such as having Cabals spread their influence while keeping their item/killing their enemies etc.

There are some other considerations. For the longest time, we just
didn't have a free Imm to run it, even if we did get one up and
running.

But I mirror what Nep said.. the idea has been kicked around for the
better part of a year, it's just a matter of making something that
will fit- and not turn into the masters of old.


G.

I logged off without posting my idea, thinking it'd be here when I got back. It was not. I did not realize this happened, and I am angry.

Not nearly as thorough as my first intended post, but I'm at work and tried to throw this back together. I like the idea, and I'd play it. Also, this cabal would fit a very needed niche. Here goes...

Goal
- Promote and defend the pursuit of magic
- Discover arcane spells and artifacts
- Chronicle the various areas

Makeup
- Led by council of 3 neutrals, 1 evil, and 1 good
- Induction by consensus of at least 3 council members
- Open to transmuters, shapeshifters, conjurers, invokers, and necromancers
- Two bard are admitted to act as historians
- Limited membership of 17-22

Powers
- Mental drain which works like vamp touch (replenishes mana by taking from opponent, damages, but if saved against it causes damage to the caster)
- Enchant item with low- mid-level spells, no supplications. If it’s not a spell, no dice. Each member limited to only three active items, otherwise it destroys all enchanted items (even if the item they enchanted is on a person logged out). Learn new spells by %, rank, and hours in game. To remove an enchantment, item must be sacrificed. Failed enchantment destroys item, too
- Evoke. For the love of Xanthrailles
- Discernment spell to understand any progs an item might have (similar to conj but better)
- Magical awareness spell. Any time they enter a room with a magical-flagged item in it not worn by a pc, they feel a slight tingle. Level based and doesn’t always work, so a level 25 won’t always feel a level 45 magical item. Better by % and rank
- Blink spell which gives ability similar to ring of blinking. Two rounds of lag, but works for two rounds. Avoids some attacks, magical attacks, bashes, and so on. Time that baby right for a flurry and you’re in business. Works against mobs and npcs, mid to high mana expense (100m)
- Give them a few more utility spells, maybe organize these so council gets the better ones and the rest get a couple. Or, mix and match similar to thief points system with points equating to hours played in game in the cabal. A 400 hour character could learn all of them

Enemies
- Village, of course
- Outlander are enemies, but not actively raided unless in a war-time situation. Since this sorcery cabal is built on advancing learning and civilization, uncooperative with each other

I'd give it a try as well.

I think bringing back empire thinking things had changed was a bad idea. The empire of today has all the issues the previous incarnation had. This cabal sound like it would have the same exact issues masters had.

I'm with Xaanix toss the entire cabal system as stagnant and start anew.

>- Discernment spell to understand any progs an item might have
> similar to conj but better)
>- Magical awareness spell. Any time they enter a room with a
>magical-flagged item in it not worn by a pc, they feel a
>slight tingle. Level based and doesn’t always work, so a level
>25 won’t always feel a level 45 magical item. Better by % and
>rank

Doesn't this sort of sound like "Find wands and understand shinies for when I play a character in another cabal?"

I'm a cynic, but damn it all, you people made me that way!

and maybe orderly mind or magical control.

something that a group of magi would want to do in their pursuits? But it's just one facet to the overall theme. And my point isn't 'Let us implement this now' but more of a 'It really isn't that hard to code up a functional and fun idea for a mage cabal'. Just throw me the bone, my man!

as before. Just sounds different, looks different but they still do the same ####. That was my point in the post. THe cabal system seems to be stuck in two way trench and people are having a very hard time thinking outside of it.

No matter how you toss and turn the powers they still are for the same purpose.
No matter how you mix and match the mages they still turn out a "Masters" cabal.
No matter how what you do you will be pretty much stuck in the trench because of the existing cabal system, the cabals already active. You gotta let go of the current system to build something truly intriguing, otherwise, you will still have the same ####, different day.

I dont know what parallel i can give you. Its like trying to imagine an alien, but thinking within the confines of our own planet and eco system. Scrap the confines and the possibilities are endless.

I don't see such a bad thing as having a cabal in the likeness of Masters. The cabal fits, the history of magic vs nature fits, it's progressive, it initiates conflict, and it also serves a purpose for specific characters (explorers and such) to interact within the game.

I like cabal wars. It's what I grew up on here. I want cabal wars to remain. Granted, racially-defined wars need to be improved upon and encouraged, and maybe then that would benefit most everyone's agenda.

The point is a stagnant system. The same thing, recycled over and over again. Remove sylvan only to put in another cabal that more or less does the same thing, who's basic job is to fight tribs.

I do not hate masters I just dont want to see a repeat with a diff name. Its not progressive, its regressive. Thera does not evolve, its the same thing over and over again. Im not saying cabal wars should not remain, im saying to redo the cabals in such a way that no parallel can be found to what was. Meaning, you dont destroy sylvan, move them across the sea, give them a slightly different RP, rename them but in the end....its sylvan only with a new face.

Why does there have to be a mage cabal? Why does there have to be a village? Why does there have to be an evil mage cabal? Why does there have to be a savages cabal? No matter what you rename them they do the same thing. Lets kill sylvan and make another cabal to fight tribs. Well, therein lies the problem. CF is just going around in circles.

Whats wrong with having just two sides? Whats wrong with having a cataclysmic event that wipes the whole world clean. Whats wrong with having a Thera world war with actual consequences? Whats the point of playing with your battleship in the bathtub?

"Whats wrong with having a cabal in the likeness of Masters?" Well, there is the problem. You dont want anything new. You just want masters back without really asking for it.

Just curious Grurk, not calling you out or nothing. But what exactly was wrong with the masters of old. I think that cabal fit really well into the cabal wars system, specially with all the political maneuvering a cabal leader could do in masters.

Kads

Don't ask me, my only master was a goodie who got turned evil and
lost his mana.

Nepenthe is better to answer that!


G.

Personally, I'm waiting for a mage cabal idea that really inspires me. A cabal that won't devolve into ganging Battle and hoarding shinies.

That's not to say that someone else might not push such a project forward, but that's what it'll take to get me interested. I ran Master for about 5 years, that's hell enough for any man.

#### all over again Nep. You guys should do a drastic change about the balance of power and the reason for fighting in Thera. A world war, two sides, no in between cabals.

Its like Empire coming back. Nothing really changed in the grand scheme of things. Same ####, different day, same reasons for fighting. No reason to really do anything.

IMMS, you guys have the right ideas but you are playing with a battleship in the bathtub, if you catch my meaning.

As pointed out, all the mage cabal ideas basically become little more than bring back masters. Bringing back empire pretty much brought back all the issues empire had. What if anything indicates bringing back masters wouldn't bring back all of masters issues?

Thats what im saying. Nothing will change because esentially, any which way you turn it, its still A MAGE CABAL. Outlander pretty much replaced sylvan. New powers, new imms, new location...but pretty much the same ####. It has the same purpose. Sure if you want to get technical and into details it doesnt. Well, sylvan could carry coins. So what? Its still the same.

Until something changes in CF, something drastic like the entire political structure and setup, the start of a new age, I will not be playing again. I fear i wont play ever.

>Well, sylvan could carry coins. So what? Its still the
>same.

It really isn't. Try playing it sometime.

IT has still the same basic purpose, fight empire and tribunal, anarchy and lawless. Wheather they allow evils or not is irrelevant. My point is the cabal structure of Thera would change.

>#### all over again Nep. You guys should do a drastic change
>about the balance of power and the reason for fighting in
>Thera. A world war, two sides, no in between cabals.

Honestly, you know what that'd be? That'd be 20 guys ganging on 1 guy. That guy logs off, another guy logs on from the weak side, repeat.

There was a long stretch during which it pretty much WAS just the Empire/Fortress show during the day. People bitched about it a lot.

It's great that you have ideas, I just don't think that you'd like them if you actually got them.

that would be the case? Assume its goodies vs evil period, no underlying highly focused principles, basically a battle for survival. Why would there be 1 goodie and 20 evils? If you only have two cabals with a good hierarchy and sub levels of powers and leadership. Scouts, defenders, attackers, support, leaders, officers, whatever. I doubt that you would have 1 vs 20. Sorry nep but i call bull on that.

The broader point is that in a many-faction war, you're unlikely to see a 20-man group because internal friction limits how large an alliance you can create. Try to put a majority of the MUD in one group right now and you're going to run into Battle vs. magi, Outlanders vs. conjurers/etc., order vs. criminals, and more sub-conflicts.

If you split the MUD arbitrarily into two groups (never mind how, and ignoring all other RP to force it to work) and one group begins to maintain an upper hand, more players historically will front-run than stand against the numerically superior foe. That's when the situation degrades into 20 vs. 0. Maybe it starts as 13 vs. 7 by the luck of the draw... and gradually as those 7 get beat down and looted, it becomes 13 vs. 1 and everyone's got nothing to do. You're basically removing all the restrictions on forming a huge gang.

On top of all of that, I think this would get boring in a week. The paper-thin red-hat-blue-hat concept won't hold people's attention for longer than that. I don't foresee this ever being an idea we'll execute. I'm not saying I'm fully happy with all the cabal dynamics, just that I think this idea is worse than doing nothing by a wide margin.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

I can see how that would be possible. It may or it may not turn out that way. Maybe to prevent such a problem from getting too bad, one can offer incentives to join or fight for that cabal.

Maybe offer things such as high pay for killing cabal X members. Like hiring mercenaries to raid for you, maybe good weapons as presents, or gear or whatever. If some cabal cabal put out a hefty bounty on another cabal member to be collected at outer guardian, then I may go kill said member. If i cant, ill get two others and split the bounty. Maybe there is a way to make enemies for the gangs. Just gotta keep an open mind.

As for your red hat blue hat thing, I dont think thats going to be a problem if the available options for doing whatever you want and influence the world and people around you increase significantly. Why do you have to have 59 different hats to make for exciting and rewarding RP? If you like quantity vs quality, then perhaps you should do nothing. You think a billion cabals with repetitive RP and repetitive PK and the same over and over endless, unreacheable goals makes things more interesting? It doesnt, CF doesnt have the playerbase for that may cabals to be interesting and as far as cabal RP in the current system is concerned, its been done to death. Dont you guys get tired of reading basically the same roles revolving around the same things? I would.

I can tell you are conservative. Its pretty transparent. When you are faced with a problem (wheather you realize it or not) its often better to do something than do nothing at all.

It's cool that you strongly tend to play uncaballed characters, but the result of that is that I don't think you have a very good grasp of the way the cabal dynamics play out.

The explanation is a long one, and maybe I'll feel like detailing more of it later, but I say it would be the way I say based on having seen thousands of cabal raids, many of them from the third-person viewpoint.

Maybe this would be a good contest idea? We find a lot of interesting solutions that way.

Yup, got some decent idea's alot of stuff to sift through though =P
Still

Scion, Outlanders and Tribunals to make it work with the numbers we have now.

Empire, Maran, Battle, Mage Cabal!!

I dont think it will happen mind you.

Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torment of man.

simply because of the numbers. There arent enough people to play them.

What I would do is just make the coming of another age and the destruction of all the cabals. The only thing thats left is the darkness and the light, and the gray shades in between. For a year have only two cabals, or thrones of power. And one big huge cabal war where people have to chose sides or be loners, neutral with no allegience. Basically Hamsah and east of it there will always be night. Even neutrals would have to tread carefully because sooner or later, they may have to chose a side. Both sides may be of the Bush mentality, "If you are not with us, you are against us."

As the year goes on, see who killed more, goodies or evil and who died more. Based on that, the darkness advances or retreats toward arkham. After a year the darkness is beat back to Gehenna or it takes over the whole of Thera where eventually only an outpost of the light far in the north mountains remains.

Basically a general war/conflict between two opposites that dominate everything. Have it good or evil, order vs chaos etc.

Its just soooo boring the same #### over and over again. Bleh, its been the same forever, at least have a purpose for the damned wars, some outcome. The outcome of this world war will decide the cabal structure at the end of the year. PLEASE give characters something to work towards.

I would do that. But thats just me.

Let me guess about the mage cabal?? Village will be its enemies? And they will fight the other cabals when necessary? Declare war when something or other killed one of their guys that wasnt a villager or maybe trib?

If we were to cut down the number of factions, that would drastically increase the amount of players per faction, which would most likely allow us to get more of the epic battles that have been missing of late. In a scenario like this suggests, leadership roles would entail more.

Say when a leader dies, it hurts the cabal's morale by a lot (Say something really noticeable, like 30 or 40, instead of the current minor morale bonus/deficits for raiding). Also, make it beneficial for the cabal to have their leaders about, to counteract the effects of a leader death. Leaders could have powers that are aimed more towards increasing the effectiveness of their citizens (good), or aimed at sucking the power of their subordinates for themselves (evil)

This would be simplifying the game down to a significant degree, but I don't know if it makes sense to keep on doing business as usual while our numbers are beginning to decline towards the point of no return. I generally see 8-12 people on my pk at hero, and with 7 cabals(?) and plenty of options that don't involve cabals, the wars really don't feel like wars. With 10 people on pk, and 250 areas, the only way to reliably seek out combat is to have a class with far reaching senses/attacks, or raiding cabals back and forth. We need a driving force to bring people together again, like they once were.

Just have some kind of event like what Xaanix is talking about. Some humongous brawl between two sides to divy up larger factions for a set length of time. One hting I dont like is having a teeny tiny outpost of good/evil order/chaos at the end of it all...maybe the gods can pull something off to make it 'even' again after this giant world-war.

We've seen a large percentage of CF gravitates towards the cabal in power, even when being in power is roughly no better than a general perception not grounded in actual fact. Any system where the strong get stronger, and the weak get weaker, especially one easily quantified such as % of areas controlled would too probably only serve in the majority of the playerbase picking the winning side. Leading to the very same stagnation you are trying to eliminate.

I like sweeping grandiose ideas, and wholeheartedly support anyone brave enough to suggest them, I just don't know if this particular one is workable.

nt

Some kind of moving weighted average of active players. If it's solely pfiles, we've already seen times when empire had the largest number of members and practically the fewest number active.

So, what would you do, create a cabal queue login?

"Sorry, you cannot log in an Imperial right now. Average weight time is 2 hours 20 minutes"

inclined. What would be required for something like that? Maybe set the inactivity time low before it kicks people out? Maybe do IP matching so that it wont let more than 1 char of the same player in the other cabal if he has one active char in the other? That should hve been done with Empire as well. Players would just have to live without being part of two opposing cabals at the same time and live without switching back and forth? If imms are afraid that would drive away some players, so be it, we dont need players who cabal hop characters when things get rough. They can just play a non caballed second or third char if they already have 1 char in either of the two cabals.

No Battle, no Outlanders, or Tribs. just two opposing forces. Maybe each side could have factions reflecting the former cabals.

Barbarians of the light that focus on killing dark mages.
Wildmen to take the war to the forests agaisnt the corrupt beastmen of the darkness.
Paladins agaisnt eh antipaladins and necromancers...ect...

This would divide the mud into one titanic battle. WOuld be fun for a bit. Maybe the Imms could call it the Time of SHadows and have it last for several months to see if this would work.

Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torment of man.

f