Do away with it. It just fuels the 'eq is more important than my life' mentality. Also, characters aren't supposed to know they're going to be granted another life after death. It hampers roleplay, in my opinion, and is only for wimps. I don't care if you're outnumbered. Log off.
Life insurance
Outnumbered is one thing. Being tag/triple teamed away from a cabal altar is another thing. I know there is not an official 'ganging is not allowed' rule, but it's just common courtesy. Cabal warfare is war, I'll agree. But I could actually group with my cabal, and just go wasting people left and right. Does that make it fair? No, not in the aspect of the game. Does that make it RP justifiable? Your darn skippy it does.
(This post is only in response to the 'if you're outnumbered' comment.)
I offered a solution for the tag team. Log off.
And there already is a solution to tag teams, life insurance.
Let me ask you this...
You want opponents who will play with you? opponents who will risk fighitng two or three opponents?
Or opponents that log off at the first chance they might be outnumbered?
Because thats what Life-Insurance does, it lets cabal people go into a fight, have a good fight, without the risk of being stripped and left unable to re-equip...i mean, honestly, if you are so hard up to set someone back to zero, then beat them again.
I tell you what, I am here to play the game, not to loot people all the blasted time. Life insurance keeps the spice in the game, when all your enemies are gone..theres nothing to do.
I am against it too. It can work in your favor sometimes. Certain classes bounce back very fast...Imagine you beat your enemy down in a close fight but they have life insurance. They can heal up maybe, quaf some potions or wtv and come back and kill you. If you had been able to loot that would not have happened.
Also when fighting uncaballed people it is hardly fair at all. You can kill them and full them but if they manage to get you, they get nothing.
IMO if it must be kept I would double or even triple the price and make it last half as long.
If you kill someone, and the come back and kill you immediately, it's your own fault for sitting in the same room so hurt.
And your damn right it isn't fair when you are fighting someone uncaballed. The other person is a cabal member, and you aren't. It's obvious it's not going to be a fair fight to begin with. People who earn the privilege to be in a cabal deserve the perks.
More and more lately I leave people their things and even have left all of it including gold. About the only time I'll do it is when someone flips out and starts yelling at me about how ****ty I am and that they'll own me (when they just flip out it's usually because they're new and not used to it at all so I'll help with them unless they start saying they'll own me, then I know it's a childish player). If there was a rule put in place that stated specifically no ganging of any kind, meaning no strategic placing of people at recall points to kill people that got away from them or whatever else I think the use of life insurance may be reduced greatly. The fact of the matter is though that if you were double or triple the price of it you'd be having to get rid of the death cost as well just to even it out some, the only people who'll get a TON of cps to use it otherwise are the very people that everyone bitches about using it anyways. I had a TON of CPs for use on my Communers who happen to be the easiest for me to get EQ with which eventually got me around 36k or so cps on one and 12kcps on the other and I could've kept going. Then you have people who can PK way easy who'll possibly get way more by killing their enemies multiple times and getting more CPs than the people who are constantly getting tooled 2 on 1 rather than the traditional 1 on 1. Life Insurance was put in place so that people who were facing 1 on 2 or 3 or 4 or however many there are without losing your EQ because I can guarantee you that at least one of them people that killed you will full loot if you don't have life insurance. 500 cps is actually a hefty price for Cabals to pay to keep your things, hell I'd rather it just be a foolproof way of either recalling you or sending you to another area of a predetermination of the Cabals choice of areas to send you to without killing you. Meaning that you could keep your life AND EQ but at the same time doesn't permanently keep your EQ either as it serves a dual purpose. Keeps your lives which is what I think it should do and gets you away even while cursed/other forms of keeping you from getting away 'unnaturally'.
Sorry, but I ALWAYS see life insurance as a pansy's way to fight. It allows people who already have cabal skills (making them MUCH stronger in PK, usually) to ALSO have no risk in a fight. That means they can go all out, while their opponent has to play defensively or risk losing it. IMO, if life insurance is going to be available, make it available for everyone (not just cabals) but make it EXTREMELY expensive, and only available to pinns.
The only cabals I see that do not regularly attack non-caballed peeps are Herald, Watcher (unless you're a qrace), sometimes Knight, and sometimes Savant. Although I have had people in both Knight and Savant attack my uncaballed chars, just not regularly. Warmaster seems to always have people in it that are just focused on fighting anything, caballed or no. Same with Nexus. Syndicate and Tribunal are based around fighting people (criminals or bounties) regardless of whether or not they are caballed.
If I have to fight a caballed person, why the hell should I have to fight someone with a superior skillset when I am the only one risking anything, and I am the only one with no hope of reward?
IMO, it's jacked. Make it for everyone or not at all. Yes, cabals have their perks. They should also have their risks to balance out those perks. What risk? Getting ganged. After all, isn't that why you now have a superior skillset? To be able to battle more effectively?
It allows people who already have cabal skills (making them MUCH stronger in PK' date=' usually) to ALSO have no risk in a fight.[/quote']
Since when was dying a no risk factor?
Death is not to be taken lightly.
RP wise, death is to be avoided at all costs. But if you fail to lose anything at death, what real risk IS there? A little pride lost, maybe?
Especially with melee, EQ makes or breaks you, to an extent. A warrior in mithril vs. a warrior decked with gear EQ? Then, the guy with the uber EQ set ALSO has a superior battle skillset, and can fight without risking losing that EQ set he spent so long obtaining. The person with the lesser skillset (ie., no cabal skills) not only fights at a disadvantage skillwise, but ALSO loses everything if he doesn't pull it off. Yes, the risk factor is HUGELY slanted one way in this.
I'm sorry, but I think if you enlist in a war (which is, comparatively, EXACTLY what being caballed is) then sure, you get superior weapons. You also run a much higher risk of dying. Why should that risk not be carried over to cabals? The greater skillset SHOULD be offset by the higher risk.
I am agains it as well yes.It gives great advantage over the uncabaled players.If I am uncabaled due to RP or unactive immortal should I just suck up?
I wouldn't necessarily say that some of those skills are superior. Often times when I'm in a Cabal I only ever really use my original skill set, I just like the colored flag next to my name. That and I refuse to fight unCabaled characters if I'm Cabaled because it's completely unfair to them to some extent unless I don't use my Cabal skills. The only Cabal that you HAVE to fight as an Uncabaled character is Syndicate and that's mostly when you're bountied and usually no other time. Otherwise as a character with no Cabal you have every opportunity to get away from people and aren't bound to fight anyone you don't want to fight. My biggest beef is when people who are in a Cabal end up ganging whether it's on someone who's in a Cabal or not. If you can't kill someone by yourself you don't need the kill at all.
One example was when I first met up with Zhelv as Chomba for the first time, I was told Zhelv was on his way to get his standard back and I went to go after him and ended up passing him on my way to look for him so I backtracked and he ended up trying to sleep me. I tooled him completely and because I was overly trying to correct my mistakes I ended up making a huge one with chasing to the kill and he recalled just to have Thicil kill and loot him at his pit. I was pretty pissed because I thought it was cheap considering I didn't realize he was there at the pit waiting for him. Yeah, we're in wars, but was it necessary to stoop to that low a level? And I know people will argue to the death with me on that point because a lot of people believe anything goes while I believe 1 on 1 is suitable I'm not wanting to bring 2 people to a 1 on 1 fight whether in a war or not. The only time I've ever done that was when someone attacked my group, in which case that's their fault for attacking the group, but intentionally grouping up to take on people is the exact same thing in my mind as going out and doing a thinly veiled gang of setting people up at different advantage points in your own Cabal.
Eliminate gangs and then worry about eliminating life insurance, otherwise though you spend a total of 500cps if you die for the use and you gain a 1 cp every 2 ticks depending on your bonuses and whatever else yet you lose 500cps in less than 15 minutes. A lot of people don't have those kinds of CPs and if you're to double it or triple it, often times you'll be spending most, if not all of their CPs. And if you're in a Cabal and some guy comes up to you out of nowhere when you've just finished fighting off multiple opponents and you've got a few ticks left of life insurance and he kills you. Why should someone you normally would tool get all your EQ after you just fended off 2+ Cabal opponents while you're trying to rest?
Aside from that not going into a Cabal is a choice. If you don't want to go in a Cabal you don't have to, if you're going for one and not in one yet and you decide to attack someone in a Cabal, well that's your choice of trying to kill them knowing full well that they can use life insurance. If they attack you with it, well then they know full well that they could be dying from you and shouldn't have attacked to begin with because if they attack first with life insurance that's just a pussy way of saying, "Hey, I know I attacked you first and I'm just testing the water a little just to see how well I do and if you kill me, well I keep all my **** and tough luck for you but I win either way!" There's a difference though when you're attacking them. If you attack them and they find the time to go back to their Cabal and spend the CPs for it, either A) You totally blow in every way possible with chasing or B)You weren't trying to begin with because you know your race/class will tool the person but still suck at chasing. Usually the same people complaining about Life Insurance are the same people going around and doing exactly this or even ganging to kill someone. So I really don't see the need to remove it since it's been used and already the cost has been doubled from what I've been told it used to be back in 1.0 and if you can't drain people of their CPs to get their EQ finally and cause them to be that much closer to condeath, you probably couldn't kill them to begin with. It's different when it's a close fight and you kill them and they had it, but that's probably because they were the initiator or they were just really prepared for you.
I will give you example why life unsurance sucks:
I pinnacled my char in the same time when Aokami did.Aokami is now trusted in warmaster.I am still member within cartel (not syndi but cartel).I have dedicated to my character more hours than he did.Then after all,why he should have that great advantage over me?Even if I manage to kill him when he uses his cabal spells/skills and items on me,I just won't be able to loot him.So why do I have to suck up and fight someone after his *** is saved by life-insurance after the only reason he owns me is because my leader is not active??I apologise to the person playing Aokami for giving him as an example 
uh...hi cabal ranks arent just about how many hours you spend...its about how you spend them 
The only cabals I see that do not regularly attack non-caballed peeps are Herald' date=' Watcher (unless you're a qrace), sometimes Knight, and sometimes Savant. Although I have had people in both Knight and Savant attack my uncaballed chars, just not regularly. Warmaster seems to always have people in it that are just focused on fighting anything, caballed or no. Same with Nexus. Syndicate and Tribunal are based around fighting people (criminals or bounties) regardless of whether or not they are caballed.[/quote']
I don't see that many Nexus running around killing non caballed people, and that's because the mere fact that normally there is a warring cabal member on at all times. And for Tribunal, don't even bring them up. There is an AMAZING thing you can do to make sure you don't get attacked by one of them. It's called...not breaking the law.
If I have to fight a caballed person' date=' why the hell should I have to fight someone with a superior skillset when I am the only one risking anything, and I am the only one with no hope of reward?[/quote']
No hope of reward? If you are in a clan, and kill someone that's caballed whether it's an enemy cabal, or perhaps a member of the cabal you are aiming for(in certain cabals) you are SURE to get a reward. That I promise you. I've had 3 non caballed chars that killed other players in cabals and I have been inducted, not allowed to apply, but inducted immediately into the cabal I was shooting for. Your telling me that's not a reward? Even the feeling you get for completely waxing someone in a cabal? You'll get noticed for it I promise.
But even on the other side, why should you HAVE to fight someone? You don't ever HAVE to fight someone. Even if you are caballed, you don't HAVE to fight. (sure you might get a boot in the pants from your cabal IMM for not fighting, but still you don't HAVE to fight)
IMO' date=' it's jacked. Make it for everyone or not at all. Yes, cabals have their perks. They should also have their risks to balance out those perks. What risk? Getting ganged. After all, isn't that why you now have a superior skillset? To be able to battle more effectively?[/quote']
There is only one cabal in the game that has a completely effective way to avoid being ganged. And that skill can still fail. Aside that I don't care what kind of skillset you have at 50, if it's 3 on 1, all the cabal skills in the world aren't going to help you against a chi bolt then bodyslams and trips and shield throws and everything else.
You are complaining about this from the side of a non caballed person. Get caballed and go play with it. You can go from 3k cps down to 0 in about 30 min. Don't tell me that's not expensive.
I do agree that it at times can be very annoying and 'unfair' but I like the fact that we have it as an option. I played to cabal that had it and didnt have it and when I was in Trib, when they didnt have it, I was full looted all the time and had to regather my things and it was so frustrating that when I captured a Watcher they had all their things because of it. Even now in Watcher I have lost my things when I had Life Insurance because of two things.
-
a thief
-
an invoker.
And yes I know there are ways around those two as well but in will cost alot of CPs to do all of that.
Also I rarely use Life Insurance, mosty because I am really bad at Pk, I only use if I finally got a decent set of EQ and do not wish to take that much time and regather; other wise I dont use it since it is pretty much pointless
I do not like the idea of heavily decked, skilled players retaining their equipment for ages and ages, simply because on the off-chance they are killed by a player that can match up, they've got life insurance. I am a firm believer that EQ should always be circulating because eventually people are going to die, and that it should take a HERCULEAN effort to retain the same set for a significant, long period of time. I know that thieves and invokers (and berserkers/DKs/ninjas to a lesser degree) can factor into this and effectively ruin someone's godly set, but still - would be nice to see a player be able to strip them of their EQ once they've been downed.
On the other hand, I like the idea of it being available for people in heavily unfair matchups - a 3v1, the lone player can get right back in the action with life-insurance.
LI has (in my own opinion), an upside and a downside. I don't know how it could be changed to make it better. Increasing the CP cost doesn't help, it simply makes it that the players that lack in CPs can't use it (generally people struggling in their cabal), and the people with a lot of CPs (generally people doing well in their cabal) can use it still, if a little more sparingly.
Again, my own personal opinion is that I would rather see the MUD without LI than with, for the above reasons - however I can appreciate that my view in that respect isn't going to be shared by the majority. It's just one of my own little niggles about LI that I've always had, and know it will always be there because LI is, in terms of the MUD, fine.
I HAVE played cabaled chars, and I have played uncabaled chars. And for the reward you are talking about? I played Allyrion and consistently killed cabaled chars while I was uncabaled. I got promoted once, to member, after collecting a bounty. Woot.
Some of those fights I picked. Most I didn't. I have had people from every cabal randomly attack me at some point on my various chars (with herald and Trib being the exception - Tribunal still attacked, but only after I became wanted).
And I understand the extra risk involved in a cabal. But hell, YOU SIGNED UP FOR IT. The risk should be included in the reward. You get extra skills, but have to re-equip a bit more.
Or, as I said, make life insurance available to all chars, but just make it EXTREMELY expensive. Like 500k for it. Everyone can get it then, but they have to work their butt off and their armor better be worth it.
I will give you example why life unsurance sucks:
I pinnacled my char in the same time when Aokami did.Aokami is now trusted in warmaster.I am still member within cartel (not syndi but cartel).I have dedicated to my character more hours than he did.Then after all,why he should have that great advantage over me?Even if I manage to kill him when he uses his cabal spells/skills and items on me,I just won't be able to loot him.So why do I have to suck up and fight someone after his *** is saved by life-insurance after the only reason he owns me is because my leader is not active??I apologise to the person playing Aokami for giving him as an example
That's a choice of a player to choose which Cabal they want to go into though. It's not very fair to try and point the blame at anyone on that note because with Imms they have RL and other responsibilities in the game and players have a right to fight whom they choose and if they choose to fight a Cabal'd Character, expect the life insurance to be on. The ONLY thing I have a beef with is that life insurance saves ALL of your EQ ALL the time including when your bounty is taken. I know it used to never do that before, I remember very distinctly while playing Joruiss some Mino Warrior I believe charged me to death because I was stupid and didn't have firestorm up and got lagged out because of the charge and lost all my rares despite having had life insurance but kept everything else. If you can take the bounty on someone it should very well take their rares as well not just throw up life insurance every time a Syndi or rogue bounty hunter comes along to tool you because you know you keep all your rares.