[50 Dwarf Cle] <PK> [KNIGHT] (Hope [L]) Sir Anamus the Regent of the Castle

[Celerity]

/---------------\/----------------------------------------------\

| Anamus || Regent of SIGIL |

\---------------/\----------------------------------------------/

| Str: 21(21)^8 || Level: 50 Sex: M Age : 527(1443h) |

| Int: 18(18) || Class: cleric Ethos: chaotic |

| Wis: 21(21) || Race : dwarf Align: good |

| Dex: 18(17) || Hp : 1129/1129 Exp : 98620/500780 |

| Con: 25(25)^1 || Mana : 823/1213 |

\ Lck: [|||||-] \/ Move : 499/499 +Hit: 45 +Dam: 48 /

/---------------/\------------------/\--------------------------\

| ARMOR || SAVES || Deity : Ordaran |

| Slash : -440 || Spell : -25 || Faith : Compassion |

| Pierce: -424 || Afflictive : -32 || Weight: 378/425 |

| Blunt : -434 || Maledictive: -15 || Items : 28/34 |

| Magic : -443 || Mental : -31 || Prac : 3 Train: 0 |

| || || Gold : 414k CP: 10.8k |

\---------------\/------------------\/--------------------------/

/ Condition: You are in the prime of your health. \

| You are ready for a cabal promotion. |

| [KNIGHT] forces are aiding your healing. |

\---------------------------------------------------------------/

55 quests and full mastery on all skills: cleric and cabal. Received a fire dragon for description. Became leader of Knight after about 15 real-life months. The character is about two years old.

It was my pleasure to rank up hundreds of characters and go on hundreds of EQ trips for other people.

--

I'd like to take this opportunity to give some public criticism on the experiences of this character as well as my last two:

Sachi: http://forum.theforsakenlands.org/showthread.php?t=5491

Kaylia: http://forum.theforsakenlands.org/showthread.php?t=20934

World RP Plots: The Krundil plot (Sachi), Lloth plot (Kaylia), and Maelbrim plot (Anamus) all left me with a very bitter taste in my mouth. These plots were directly what led me to abandon those three characters. I have some criticisms of FL-style RP plots:

1. The outcomes are always determined in advance by the staff. As of a result, it doesn't really matter what happens in game, in either PK or RP. The overdeterimistic nature of the plots means that there will always be a feeling of apathy among the players. The Lloth plot was going to fail in a certain way no matter what I did as the catalyst character. Maelbrim was going to be rebuilt (and in a certain, specific way), no matter who did what. The same can be said for Krundil, Hamlet, and any other plot we've done.

2. Getting involved in plots is nearly always extremely detrimental to your character. In the Krundil plot, I permanently lost hellstream as an invoker for getting involved. Kaylia had to fundraise 40 million gold and ended up with a PK-gimped combination. Anamus raised 100 million gold/cps and the opposite team (Nexus) lost their top skills for a long time. This sucks as a player. As F0xx always reminds us, getting involved is also dangerous in the RP itself, in that you are likely to take DEATHs due to IMM-intervention and mistakes. Think of how many people died in the 'death-free' tournament.

In my case, Anamus was inflicted with cancer (without a speck of RP from the staff), making it so that whenever he drank anything, his thirst was not quenched and he took damage. That means zero regen and constantly taking big damage from thirst. I only survived by abusing the arena to restore myself. This was fixed after several days to just hurt Anamus when he drank alcohol--but even then, why? I was told by an IMP that it was 'funny' and that I didn't need my alcoholic perk anyways. This was never expanded upon by the staff, he kept his 'cancer' until the end, and this continues to be one of the most sharply negative memories of my playing experience.

3. The system. We just have no way in game to advance plots. All we can do is write notes and wait. A hell of a lot of waiting. The staff can direct us OOCly in a certain way: gather x resources and report back. But we all know how that really works: gather x resources, report, wait three months, plot direction changes on whim, all characters involved are deleted, staff gives new orders to continue to the next plot phase. Our quest system simply isn't designed for plots. It is designed for simple fetch quests.

I'd also like to talk about late-game characters. What are you supposed to do at 50? My playtime was distributed something like this:

20% ranking/eq runs.

20% PK

60% Idling/waiting for gold respawn for plot

<1% active RP

I imagine most other characters have a lot more PK and less idling, but the point is the same. There is a time when you cannot further your character: nothing to master, no quests to do, don't need EQ...in essence, no game to play. Just run around and kill people (for a contrived RP effect, not like you can win the war!) or engage in the same ~5 conversations with other archtype characters. I would literally log on, go to the Knight castle, and read a book or play another game while keeping Anamus in the background. That isn't good at all...I was really, really bored after a certain point.

I'd also like to talk about balance a little bit. Everybody knows clerics are too powerful (although I never imagined a GOOD cleric to be that powerful!). Why doesn't the staff balance them? I've made threads for the staff on how clerics could be changed based on my experience with Anamus. I've made threads on ninja, bards and necros as well. How much time does it really take? Is the imbalance not sufficiently proven yet?

Titles and Promotions: I had two of the worst titles (one was hugely negative for a Sigil) and the other was so bland as to be nearly offensive to the achievements of the character. A big on that topic from me. As for promotions, I was a T in Sigil for several months when Istendil was rolled. He hit L before I hit E, and Klemsor was later rolled and hit E before I hit E. I became leader a half year after Istendil deleted. I didn't complain about this until now, but was my RP/PK so poor? It was quite upsetting to me as a player. If you have to wait 15 months to get leader, it seems more like pity than a reward.

Having given that criticism, I'd like to qualify it all by saying that of course I had more positive than negative experiences while playing this character. I just feel that the negative needs to be aired out--everybody knows the positives if you were involved with my character.

I don't think I'll invest so much into a single character any time soon. I think our game is not well-designed for characters to live much past about 500 hours and still have fun. It could also be that what I find fun is very different from what other players find fun, I don't know.

By the way, who knew it was me?

[f0xx]

You've got to be kidding me...

[edit] Reserved for comment after I read the post.

[edit2]Alright, I read it. And it sounds exactly like something I would write, but written with a much more "tactful" manner.

I don't know where to begin commenting. You hit a lot of "soft" spots with this post, especially considering it is backed up with such a character.

I will skip the praising part. It is clear to all of us that this character (together with Thulgan) is the most significant character that has been rolled in quite some time, and will go to the points which hold biggest interest to me and to most of the playerbase.

Quests and immortal interaction. I don't really bother with them for the exact reasons you mention. Mostly, because of the fact that your character is very likely to die if you get involved in such.

Now, I've done a fair big amount of criticism towards Anamus, and most of it seems exactly in place too, having in mind what you just said about hoarding hours. That being said, I would have done the exactly same thing in your place, if not left the character long time ago. I really can't believe what you wrote about the perk though. I've always thought I've had it bad with perk bugs and stuff, but that just tops everything I have experienced myself. I wont comment this. I don't want another ban.

Promotions and how they work - personally, I think the current system needs to be changed. There are ways to make the organization around leading cabals much less resource consuming, easier and FAIR.

Balance - this is a big issue there. You hit a fine nail towards assassination ninjas with your last deletion thread (Kaylia) and you hit a good one with this too. Usually, the rule of the thumb has been - if you think something is OP, then roll it and roll the PB with it. As you've proved it with Kaylia and now with Anamus, this rule no longer applies. Not even gonna say that Anamus is FAR from the strongest cleric combos available.

Enough for the OOC matters though. Lets talk about ingame

I had quite a few interactions with Anamus, going back from Sartach to Nashmurlan, to my most recent one - Baeladar.

The few conversation you had with Baeladar hinted that you were aware I was behind the character.

My most prominent memory with Anamus was when I fought you with Nashmurlan. We were in the veiled water room, near the Knight cabal that had one exit. We fought and my malform suddenly dispelled you, dropping your flight, protective shield and some of your protections, but leaving your sanctuary up. THEN I got the shakes. That was a one in a million opportunity I knew I would NEVER get again. I was literally up from my chair timing trip and shouting "DIE B!TCH!!" Somehow you managed to flee and escape at awful (IIRC) though

Man we had some good fights, which would usually end up with me packing.

What a character...

PS. I would have never guessed it was you. I thought it was Zho

[H&R]

Damn. Epic character. Fun to hang with, not so fun to fight. Never thought it was you

[kaboomer]

Anamus helped me out on tons of different characters. You're always topnotch.

You've got a lot more plot experience than I do, but I will have to disagree about not getting involved with plots. For me, it's the saving grace of the game. Getting to 50 and doing mindless cabal warfare is boring to me. Being able to change an interactive landscape is important. In the Hamlet plot, I think my character had a lot of control over what happened, and that made me feel great. I did have to send a lot of notes and make contrived RP plot posts (using tons of smotes, editing things - RPing with myself essentially), but it all worked out.

I don't know if this is out of line, but I think back to 1.0 days. I played back then, took about 7 or 8 years off, and came back last summer. Back in 1.0 people didn't know the source code, people didn't understand the mathematics behind everything, and the game was tons more fun for more people. I think now people have broken it down to the point that certain people can essentially kill almost everyone, and die to almost no one. Only when you get two elite players, both of whom have every aspect of their PK game planned, is there a challenge. Even then it's just frustrating for them.

This problem is what causes people to hate the game. It's too late to do anything about it now, but I recommend to anyone who has never gotten into the coding of the game to never do it. I'm never going to. This means there's always something to learn, always things I can do to improve through trial and error, and always a reason to keep pushing myself. In other words, I didn't beat the game.

Lots of elites are disgruntled because they're playing to beat a game you can't beat. Just play for the moment of the character, and I think it will be more fun.

[-Totenkopf-]

Wicked strong character. I remember fighting you with Ardeliech and getting absolutely smashed. It was rather demoralising.

I can relate to you somewhat. The primary reason I had Philantees denied was because I was bored with the character and felt that I had reached a dead end (well, even worse actually).

I am also not very fond of the fact that everything seems predetermined. That in reality, your character can have little to no effect on their surroundings.

For the amount of time and effort you dedicate to this game, I could only wish you got more out of it.

[jibber]

I really did enjoy the character. I'm not going to comment much about the curse (being I was there when it happened, and was quite disgusted as well) but I would like to say something about Klemsor.

Huge mistake on my part. Amaruil and I were RPing a chastising with Klemsor who had made many mistakes, but still proved to be a worthy Praetorian force. Amaruil hadn't meant to promote him to E, and I misinterpreted what he was trying to say (as in, go and fulfill your duty) and I said out loud on Istendil "Rise as the Elder of Praetorian" (or something to that effect). I was later told he only intended to promote him in the clan, not in the cabal, but it would have been really lame if the Leader of Knight said one thing, and Amaruil did another. Much to my liking, Amaruil much preferred Mortal Run cabals over the "my word is law" rule of most other Immortals' cabals.

As for me getting E, then L before you got E.. I can understand the frustration there. I'm not going to say you were better than me, or the other way around, but I can say that my play times coincided far more with Amaruil then yours did. That given, I got so many rewards because he was online when I was. I also found it fairly easy to RP a merciful Knight who had a hellish side to him when innocents were hurt -- so I was able to RP consistently even when another character wasn't on, or I was the only one online.. through prays, or through several emotes.

Great character, though. I enjoyed you and your RP/banter throughout several more characters. Although Istendil didn't have near as many hours as you (think I had ~850hrs) I can definitely agree that it gets boring at some point, and it's hard to mold your RP or PK after doing it for so long to once again spark interest in your character and keep it going.

I may get a bit of hate for saying this, but perhaps it's time to integrate age death with characters? Say, once you hit roughly 500 hours, you rapidly decline (depending on race) and eventually age death? I dunno, seems like a suitable fix.

[Twinblades713]

After a certain point, you gotta realize you're only playing for you and not for tangible rewards. Anamus was untouchable. Good char.

[Volgathras]

Thank you for your constructive criticism. As it was a personal goal of mine to focus and improve the RP of the game, I'll provide my insight in to your problems.

The following are some of my views on the issues surrounding global RP plots and my response to your concerns. This is not necessarily the official stance of the administration, but the thoughts of someone who's chosen to specialize in RP:

1.) Predetermination of RP plots; It is true that the results of a wide-reaching RP plot are often (but not always) decided on in advance. In my view, this is often necessary. The fantasy tools we employ in attempts to bring the game to life are large and (in the case of global plots) world-threatening. And so, we decide we'd like the world to continue to exist, rather be destroyed by said nasty. In this way, things are predetermined. To take the Lloth plot as an example, had she been wholly manifested in our world, it would have spelled the end of nearly all life as we know it - in normal lore, few or none of our immortals would be able to match her power, and others would be apathetic, so conceivably Lloth would simply eradicate anything in her path and the only selectable race would be Drow.

That said, I like to think we provide a good deal of lee-way to players in the methods they choose to employ to reach their goals. While discussing and running plots, it's common to post 'we'll see how the players go with it.' During the course of a plot, we will also provide characters with mini-quests and other activities to push the plot along. This is also to ensure people understand that the plot remains active. If we left things entirely character driven, things simply wouldn't get finished. Characters leave for a variety of reasons, for instance, which would then halt the plot and without immortal intervention perhaps permanently. Also, if we sit back and wait for something to happen, characters may also be waiting for immortals to do something, creating a stalemate where - once again - nothing gets done.

Complete player control of world plots sound good in theory, but for the reasons outline above it wouldn't work well in practice. All games must maintain the integrity of their world.

That said: More (not complete) player control would be great, however this is stimied by the hard-ceiling of keeping the world going, and the fact that, often, only a hand-full of players actually get wholly involved in RP plots. To say that they don't want to participate solely because they feel like nothing they do will matter is, in my opinion, false. It may be one of many factors that contribute to lack of participation. Motivating players to become involved in RP both big and small is something I'm very interested in dissecting, and improving, so hopefully more will be done about this in the future.

2.) Quests to save the world go through ups and downs. One defining quality of an epic is that the main characters (and many others) have to suffer hardships. It makes it real. If, in the course of playing a purportedly epic campaign you surmount every obstacle without consequence, it'd make it both unreal and less enjoyable. Of course, there are mistakes made on the part of the administration during the course of said event. Sometimes people die when it isn't our intention. Usually we adjust pfiles if the issue is sever. This is one of the reasons you have 60 lives. If one becomes upset over losing their life in the course of an RP event it speaks to the fact that they feel participating isn't worth it, which means either one's expectations are too high or the event needs to be looked at to ensure all those involved are enjoying themselves.

Further, there is an inclination to focus on the negative. To take the example of the Nexus losing their powers (which was a result of the Volgathras being locked up mini-plot, not Maelbrim), it does negatively impact the Nexus (in a plausible way, and also as a means to inspire players to become involved) but it also impacts the Knights in a positive way. With two morally opposed factions, there will always be one 'winner' and one 'loser.'

A character may also be thrust in to a situation they did not expect or have been warned of. This is part and parcel of 'living' in a dynamic world consisting of many different 'people' who each have an effect on their surroundings. These are viewed by the administration as challenges and RP opportunities, often specifically tailored towards a certain individual, to further emmerse them in the game world and make things more personal and real. If you were told the only reason something was done because it was 'funny,' it was probably because they misjudged their relationship with you, and the tone of communication failed to translate properly.

That said: as was mentioned above, if a death or other result of RP participation is causing someone so much grief as to entirely destroy their experience, both the plot and it's effects need to be looked at. This will be taken in to consideration in further plots that I run.

3.) The current system of plot development and traction is unorganized, I won't disagree. However, often we're dealing with limited resources (in the way of presence and compatible play times) and the 'turn-over' of characters that often aren't within the realm of administrative control.

As has been mentioned, RP participation is something that needs to be worked on in a plot, instead of being something we can rely on. Because of this, certain aspects of a plot that rely on a particular character or situation may be delayed; if the character is gone, tied up with real life, or has trouble getting together with the applicable immortal to get things done.

That said: we can definitely benefit from better organization and less reliance on a particular character or situation to move a plot, and I'll count it as a personal short-coming in my current plot designs. I'll work to better this in the future. If you feel as though the 'fetch' quests are excessive, this is indicative of a lack of imagination, and will also be looked in to.

Personal responses to your other concerns:

Late game play: It is abundantly clear to the staff that there is a lack of things to do for players after a certain point. It's something we've looked in to and discussed at length, but are currently struggling to implement due to issues with time and resources. Every long-term game suffers from this, and those which are successful are multi-million dollar power-houses like World of Warcraft who have deep pockets and whole departments dedicated to pumping out expansions every year to maintain interest. It may not be acceptable to some, but we do with what we have.

Balance: a consistent and ever-present concern for the staff. The threads of discussion opened with the administration are also looked in to and decided upon, however, as with issues with late-game play, sometimes we get backed up or have determined other things take precedence. We also cannot make changes immediately, and in are reluctant to do so if the character who has brought this imbalance to our attention is still in play; we would then be open to extreme prejudice from that player saying we're screwing them personally.

Titles: Remember that titles are not chosen by the character, but are a reflection of their fame (or infamy). If one feels as though their title is personally offensive, they are absolutely free to bring this up. A few key strokes rectifies the issue. The administration is always willing to hear arguments based on personal opinions with regards to a player's feelings as well as their opinions regarding the RP of their characters.

Promotions: I cannot speak to your personal experience because promotions are handled by each administrator based on how they choose to run their cabal. I will however interject the oft-used caveat that many things are considered when choosing who gets promoted and how fast, including but not limited to; general standing in the community, participation in cabal affairs, cabal need, reliability, and many others. Now to speak personally, it took me nearly two years to earn a Leader in a cabal at one point, and I was thrilled...

Thank you once again for your thoughts. You are indeed a valued member of the community and your input has and will continue to help us improve the game. It has given me a great deal to think about, since the bulk of your concerns were directed at my chosen field, and I can tell you I will work to improve where I can.

[The Forsaken]

Great toon. Whooped me solid a few times.

As far as the IMM-driven RP plots, I can agree to you for the most part. Hatril had a hard-on trying to get the Maelbrim plot screwed up, and asked for a refund MANY times, put it it a vote, addressed both cabal IMM's who said along the lines of 'ok', and nothing ever happened. I understand though, building an area like that takes TIME, and after TIME is invested, it's hard to turn it all around and start over.

[tassinvegeta]

Wow, such an epic character. I never thought Anamus would ever go away. I for one never thought it was you.

You have a point about the predetermined outcome of rp plots. We can get much more out of rp plots by having individual actions have a greater impact on plots. Seeing part of Val miran burned from the actions of one character is one of the best that sticks out in my mind as well as the boneseers shrine, or Vhorkus' head, and look at how small those were.

Regarding how boring it is to play a character past 500 hours. FL can't be perfect. Most games will have you going bored far under those 500 hours. I'd say FL is a step up in many ways. You said yourself that your character is two years old? I don't know many games that offer so much for one character in a two year span. Add in the addition of being able to create new characters or experience other aspects of the game. You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned that characters aren't intended past 500 hours. Simply roll a new one, switch cabals or do something ig that's exciting and new? I gave up many extremely decked and high ranking chars to start on new ones because I knew I'd never die or simply because I know I'd have more fun. I've two or three to try and switch cabals and it felt like a whole new world open up. Maybe try to create your own plot and make Anamus go to the darkside. I'm sure that'll create a whole new experience. Darth Anamus mwahahaha.

Not sure if you proved how OP clerics are. You are afterall playing one qclass/qrace so your view might be misconstrued. But if you believe they are maybe you can expand upon it a little bit more for those of us who don't see it as easily? I've always agreed with the ninja portion as I've done the same on a few occasion and simply did not want to play them anymore. Ashame, as they are one of my favorite classes in another sort of way.

[Trick]

Anamus isn't an Avatar, Tassin, if that's what you meant by qclass/qrace.

[Evangelion]

Jibber already covered what I was going to say - I was made Elder on Klemsor so soon completely by accident - and was demoted maybe a week later.

Anamus was an awe-inspiring character. I don't think I ever saw, heard of, or knew of you dying (it looks like you MAY have taken a couple of mobdeaths). That said, you have been the pillar of Knight for a long time and it's hard to imagine an Aabahran with no stoic dwarf cleric beating the crap out of evils everywhere.

I enjoyed all of our interactions, most of which were had while I was playing Klemsor. I certainly hope that you continue to play, even if you steel yourself against getting so deeply involved in another character. You truly are an asset to this game, as much for the criticisms and ideas that you bring, as for the characters and roleplay that seem to flow so naturally from you.

I <3 Celerity. /end

[tassinvegeta]

Anamus isn't an Avatar' date=' Tassin, if that's what you meant by qclass/qrace.[/quote']

Oh I did say qclass, oops. I meant to say one race/class/cabal combination.

[Mali]

A few points:

I would literally log on, go to the Knight castle, and read a book or play another game while keeping Anamus in the background.

1) Having interacted with you across multiple characters, I could tell you weren't really there. You should have abandoned the character when it was no longer fun for you. I always thought to myself "Anamus just sits in the cabal, won't RP, and logs in every now and then just to keep his uber-set of eq". RP, to me, means more than saying "oi there". As another player, I could tell you weren't into it and that detracted from my experience. When you have an L position, play or leave, period. I believe L players should have more of a time commitment to be able to keep their position and their eq.

2) A character with 1443 hours that is still in the prime of their health... this says to me you weren't really playing the game, not in the way I feel it is meant to be played, anyway. Anamus was just too careful to enjoy fighting. We even killed you once when you made a few mistakes, but the stupid cabal spell interfered and of course you were not to be seen again during that session. I've noticed a trend lately that many characters are overly-cautious.

3)I believe some self-reflection about what you want out of the game and about your level of commitment to fostering an enjoyable story for your character would help, rather than externalizing such problems to the staff or the game environment. You said yourself you would just read a book and keep anamus at the cabal. That's not even playing...

Condeath your next character, please. No more 1000+ hours and prime of your health.

BTW, 1443 hours amounts to approximately 60 days. double that since i'm sure you slept on some of these days. You spent approximately all the waking hours of 4 months of your life over a two year period pretending to be a dwarf halfheartedly. Just something to think about.

That said, props on a beefy character

[f0xx]

Remember Cel, die more. Or Mali wont approve

[Anume]

One pdeath (assassination before Sigil) is a bit extreme for so many hours. I know you're also a very careful player, f0xx, but I agree that sometimes it is more fun to go all out and take a couple risks. Even if it may get you killed.

[Mali]

but I agree that sometimes it is more fun to go all out and take a couple risks. Even if it may get you killed.

Which, as it turns out, is also about as good of an endorsement for internet-based dating that I've ever seen

[Akoz]

One pdeath (assassination before Sigil) is a bit extreme for so many hours. I know you're also a very careful player' date=' f0xx, but I agree that sometimes it is more fun to go all out and take a couple risks. Even if it may get you killed. [/quote']

Like me, I die to everyone on fight.... on a healer @ that!

[the_nightmare]

One pdeath (assassination before Sigil) is a bit extreme for so many hours. I know you're also a very careful player' date=' f0xx, but I agree that sometimes it is more fun to go all out and take a couple risks. Even if it may get you killed. [/quote']

I think that I landed the assassinate ;D

[Aulian]

Good Job Cel.

Someone telling you you shouldnt be playing once you've waited more then a year for Leader, and should just give it up is a moron.

Maybe if it took 3 months for a character of Anamus' ability to get L I would agree - Then if you gave up L there would be some hope for achieving something else on another characer/another area. As the ranking system stands - GTFO. I wouldnt be giving that up after that much time invested.

[Mali]

Someone telling you you shouldnt be playing once you've waited more then a year for Leader, and should just give it up is a moron.

Maybe if it took 3 months for a character of Anamus' ability to get L I would agree - Then if you gave up L there would be some hope for achieving something else on another characer/another area. As the ranking system stands - GTFO. I wouldnt be giving that up after that much time invested.

I regret your choice to reduce this discussion to name calling. My point is that if you are just going to read a book or play WOW and sit behind your cabal gate, meanwhile only logging a few hours here and there to keep your EQ set, you are not being a cabal leader. Having played a knight under Anamus, there was virtually no leadership and limited character interaction other than "hello, goodbye".

Personally, I have alot of respect for Celerity. The limit to my discussion are the interactions with Anamus that I had. She stated herself that she is disgruntled, if not bitter, about the character and was bored enough with it, perhaps for a period of years, to reduce her playing to essentially being AFK in a cabal-exclusive protected area.

The leader spot is heavily coveted and comes with super powers, but also super responsibilities. Hoarding the leader spot without actually leading the cabal or having a presence in the realms is detrimental to the cabal and to the cabal's RP environment.

IMHO, the time commitment to keep an L should be triple what it takes to keep your EQ set, and furthermore the spot should be maintained with visible achievements such as a)internal cabal notes, notes to the public, c)adventuring outside the cabal, d)unique contributions to the games RP environment.

While w'ere on the topic, cabal sitting in general should not be allowed. Cabal members, as RP and PK ambassadors of the realm, should have forced interactions. As it is, they are essentially removed from public interaction through cabal-sitting. A better solution would be to have a no-assassinate/no steal zone in a major city, like the pub or meeting house, that requires a 20 tick no-blood downtime before you can enter, and a mandatory purchasing policy (such as drinks, snacks, or chips at a gaming table) every 40 ticks to stay in and prevent idling.

[Anume]

Also just wanted to add that I do not agree with the statement that all in a rp plot is predetermined and players have no influence.

I think if you look at the Hamlet plot for example, players influenced this A LOT, created the plot and gave some rp turns.

The Imms merely keep the changes that do happen from being detrimental / unbalancing for the whole game.

Same with the Sephahoona plot, instead of blowing up Rheydin, it was changed and through player effort changed again to the now Maelbrim. As Knight - and especially Anamus - got most active in the rebuilding, the now area also reflects this and is very Knight like, without turning our neutral city into a goody one. So yes, I'd say players can, will and do influence rp plots a lot.

As to Anamus, a very long lived and well played character.

[Demiterracotta]

Great Character.

My one and only trip to a high level gear area was with you and Istendil. You were a great dwarf to RP with, since at the time I was playing a Dwarf as well. Always had a lot of respect for you.

I think with the whole one death/retiring the character/sitting in the cabal discussion everyone is forgetting one important thing.

Anamus was involved in a major RP plot (Maelbrim). As a player, would any of you after a YEAR of investment into a character plus a big plot you are part of, give that up because you are bored? To me, it's hats off, it shows that the player is dedicated enough to the changing world of FL that they keep on trucking even if they hate themselves for it.

So in all, I say we not bash an epically long-lived leader of knight and helpful player and take our hats off in admiration of someone who was willing to see something though when so few of us actually take a character so far.

[Akoz]

Great Character. + More Long Quote.....

Well Said! Well Said Indeed!

[Mindflayer]

Hah. I should have know it was you Celerity. Amazing character. My only regret was not dueling Anamus from my home PC with my macro setup. It might have given me the edge that I needed. You were the bane of all evils for a long, long time.