I like the idea of having this level of change to the game.
I think it will re-light a lot of old fires and break down the walls of monotony.
I do not, however, think this is the right way to do it.
The cabal system is what the main problem is, I believe. I think this because it makes a people think of what combo they want to be before they roll the character, and they will hammer their rp around that... Ideally, they would have an rp and then mold their class/cabal around that.
I think a good way to solve this is make this "capture the flag" nonsense less important. Make being in a cabal more rp oriented than it is pk oriented. You want T? Then voice your ideas for how this cabal should be run, what we're after, and what we have to do to obtain what we're after. As it is, its like good vs. evil, might vs. magic, control vs. freedom, and nature vs. civility. A lot of cool things can happen amongst that broad spectrum of outlooks. I just think that the whole standard capturing and defending takes a lot away from the RP standpoint of the game. Maybe your with an eclectic group or in the middle of some story-changing RP. "Oh damn, cabal is under attack, gotta go."... That right there takes away so much from what could be.
I don't know if this sounds stupid. Honestly, to me the whole capturing standard thing is what kills a lot of RP monkey time. Which in turn makes rolling a character more straight pk perk oriented... because you want to be the indominable force in your cabal. No rp logic in that character, no sir.
I think this is a very interesting post.
The problem I see is that different immortals have different requirements, different rules, no matter if it comes to cabal warfare or promotions. Just as some immortals promote faster than others, the same way Anume allows 5 people to defend against one and Haesierph doesn't.
I've talked about this with the IMMs on prayer forum before and the different standards is one of the things which is pissing me off very much.
Some people don't know those standards and since there are different standards for different cabals it can be really frustrating for newer players and not just those who are new. Hell I don't even know what my current immortal thinks about more than one characters defending the alter against one attacker and I've been in that cabal for more than 300 hours now.
On the other hand I've had situations where I am attacking the enemy and he is simply sitting inside his cabal. When I get the standard, he comes and retrieves it in within a matter of seconds. Over and over and over and it gets quite frustrating when you see that same person advancing faster in his cabal than you in your own.
Thats why I believe that creaton of hard rules concerning cabal warfare behaviour and promotions are much more important than such major re-organizations of the cabals.
Just my 2 cents.
The "in-game" rules differ from the actual "ooc" rules of the game. As per the actual OOC game rules, ganging/tagging/multikilling etc. to a certain degree isn't against the rules at all (qclas/race aside) - any penalties you receive for doing this are typically in-game, IC punishments. Taking Knight as an example, an "in-game" rule is that I want to see equal numbers fighting at all times, even at the cabal. Breaking this rule isn't actually breaking the OOC game rules, but breaking the in-character code of conduct that Haesierph expects Knights to live by, for his reasons and hence the punishment is an IC punishment. I compensate for the stricter rules in comparison to other cabals in other ways however. In this respect, I am against the idea of creating "hard and fast rules" on cabal warfare/promotions - different cabals have their individual 'codes of conduct' on what is acceptable and what isn't and come with their individual advantages and disadvantages.
