Cabal info tells you who your cabals allies are, only Syndicate and their allies can see who everyone's allies are yet everyone and their mother knows who everyone is allies and vendetta'ed with IG.
Syndicate being an ally to another cabal does not stifle them in any way. Yes Oppressant and Vindis acquired an alliance between Syndicate and Tribunal but that didn't stop me from collecting their bounties if they refused to buy them out or couldn't. Didn't stop Raemus for going after Hebh when he refused to buy his. However the promises the syndicate can make and what they are willing to uphold have always been the foundation to their alliances. Without that intrigue for manipulation and the ability to create any relationship you are essentially forcing a lone wolf cabal. Sure that's what they are now but everyone already logs off when one gets on or gets pissed when they get contracted, what will it be when they are just a bunch of silent pkers?
They wouldn't be anymore silent than they already are though, especially considering alignment restrictions. How does it stifle them being in an alliance with another Cabal? It does so by forcing you to be allied with people your character doesn't like, but due to the Alliance outside of collecting their bounties you risk severing ties with them because of your hatred. Removing alliance doesn't risk anything though which makes them evolve more as a character and less as a Cabal. To put into perspective:
You're a Vet in Syndicate. You hate Leonidas because he's a Knight, you're evil, and you both touched each other a LOT when you were younger and getting the upper hand on one another has switched continually over the years on who has won making you about even. The issue is you have an Alliance with Knight that clearly states unless they have a bounty, you're not allowed to attack them regardless of your own personal feelings of hatred towards them. Leonidas doesn't have a bounty because he continually just buys it out so he can focus on just his Cabal enemies, but your character still has that urge to kill him and thus attack him ruthlessly. Gomer Pyle finds this out and issues a few warnings over the course of a few days, but you're relentless, and as such it severs all ties with the Syndicate because of such and instead of just breaking a pact you're now about to go to war. Mind you, you're the only person in the entire Syndicate halls who is solely responsible to this happening, and lets say that there are 4 other Syndicates and none of you have the ability to change politics, but none of the other 4 people have anything against the Knights and have found it lucrative. You just pissed away an Alliance due to your characters RP which you should remain true to, but you also did the same for the others which could potentially conflict with their RP.
So is it fair that because you wanted to war with them that the others are forced into it? I don't want the answer of "Cabal leave confirm" because quite frankly that's another reason why people stop playing because the fun was ruined by someone else. By removing Alliances for Syndicate you essentially choose who your enemies are regardless of how it may affect others. There's always the possibility that that individual will create a monster out of someone after repeatedly killing them and they decide to kill every member of Syndicate that's known or even suspected, but it's far less likely to happen where as leaving in Alliances could very well put you into a Vendetta that left your mates in a worse position. So why have an Alliance with a Cabal just so they keep adding bounties to the boards? Remove the Alliance entirely, make that person your friend, add in the ability to sneak into ANY Cabal as long as you're a Hunter and they're hiding inside through the use of 'Bribe', and then have that friend bounty everyone so you have something to do. Alliances are limiting. A true hunter would have no alliances as it allows them the flexibility to expand much more than just Contracts.
It was elaborated on later in the post, that was just the beginning of where I was taking the point from. It's not narrow minded thinking, it's just a fact that you're the hit man.
I've tried across characters to break the alliance as well, with epic failures which lead me to rid myself of the character. Syndicate shouldn't be able to ally with any other cabal, instead they are the spies, assassins and merchants of the land. They are the shadow workers for those who want an item or want someone dead without being known. I see a lot of complaints in terms of syndicate and majority of them are right, at least in a sense.
The minimum price of bounties should either be raised through hard code or small, minuscule bounties should reflect back to the person placing them. Minimum prices could increase exponentially which the higher rank of a caballed character.
I am definitely for syndicate never being allowed to ally with a cabal, or even have a trade pact. To be honest, I am even for Merchant becoming seperate from syndicate therefore if people are wronged by merchants, they can receive the short end of the stick as well.
If you want someone dead, bounty them. If you want their items, bounty them and send a note of what you want. It is a simple thing, but even some of the cabals are 100% frowned upon for even using the bounty system (aka knight). What is so wrong with the knights using a corrupt system to aid with ending darker souls in aabahran? If someone is "wanted" by knight, they should be allowed to bounty, even encouraged.
If you join Knight now, you pretty much know with almost 100% certainty that you are going into a cabal that has a war with two different cabals. One is hard coded and the other is coded through constant bounties and this log is perfect evidence of that. It is true that in the past some characters made an effort to see the alliance change by allying with other cabals, but at the start of that character I can promise you that they were allied with Nexus and at the end of that character they were probably allied with Nexus.
Don't even give me this shit about not being able to buy out either because you know all you have to do is place another bounty on someone else that is online regardless if your price is higher or not. I can't afford to buy out my bounty as a Nexus? I'll just put 50k on this non-caballed person and ta-da, I don't have to worry about the Syndicate because I've given them other business.
EDIT: ^ For f0xx - the MAJORITY of people do the above.
Random bounties are fucking irritating. I've leveled a character from 0-50 in two days through quests, never having spoken to a single person, and ended up on both gold and CP sides of the bounty board. Not a single word was said to anyone, not a single note was sent to anyone, but somehow I've managed to get a bounty? Makes no sense. What it is, is a Nexus is inflating the bounty board because they are allied and figure sure, I'll place random bounties just to give you business. Its a BAD, poor form of RP.
I like the idea of a bounty being under a certain amount reveals the bountier. You want a bounty to be super secret squirrel shit? You gotta pay more for it. You want to throw around 50k bounties for no reason? Well, now I at least know who the scumbag with shit RP is that did it.
Don't even give me this shit about not being able to buy out either because you know all you have to do is place another bounty on someone else that is online regardless if your price is higher or not. I can't afford to buy out my bounty as a Nexus? I'll just put 50k on this non-caballed person and ta-da, I don't have to worry about the Syndicate because I've given them other business.
Things are not black and white, you know that better than me. Ultimately, the syndicate himself chooses who to go for. There have been cases, and not rare ones, where I've went after an allied Nexian rather than someone else.
I like the idea of a bounty being under a certain amount reveals the bountier. You want a bounty to be super secret squirrel shit? You gotta pay more for it. You want to throw around 50k bounties for no reason? Well, now I at least know who the scumbag with shit RP is that did it.
I have always thought there should be a "PAYBACK BOUNTY"
help PAYBACK
Some people seeking to place bounties on others are cheap and do not seek to have the best mechanics on the job. So they place bounties that are of a minimal amount just to keep the syndicates people preoccupied and keep them selves in the clear. The syndicate grew tired of these tactics and began to let these jobs fall into the hands of common thugs, Unfortunately these thugs are less professional than the upper echelon of the family and often double cross their clients to easily double their payday.
syntax : Bounty payback
The price collected on your head in coins or CP is deducted from your totals and a bounty is placed on the person who originally contracted you.. (note: Original bounty MUST be less than double the minimum Gold or CP cost for a bounty. Example 100k gold, 100 CP.)
They will not tell you the name, but will allow you some Payback.
This would stop the 50k bounties. Farming 50K in 2002 with 40 players online and 10 in your PK range was difficult. Farming 50k today is far to easy for 50k to be a viable price to pay for the anonymous death of another.
Savant was in an alliance with Syndicate when I first got into Nexus.
There was a time I was fighting a knight (Ashuga possibly) and Iznazti was trying to take his standard. My role play has never been someone that wants to fight and so I bountied the Knight mid fight seeing that Kotrag was on. Then the Knight bountied both of us in Nexus.
Next thing you know I have to run off from the Knight to reat up and Kotrag pops up and destroys Iznazti. Gets the kill on him. Iznazti was so pissed off. (Even wrote a shoutout trashing me that was later removed) Kotrag sends me a tell saying he spared me for now because I am a good customer. (I typically keep my enemies bountied, alliance or not)
From there Kotrag and I worked towards an alliance and Nexus stole the alliance from Savant. We even went to war with Savant over it as well. Everyone bitched about it because Savant was a tough war with Sarcon and Izzy playing damn near 12 hours a day at the time. A lot of people stopped playing in Nexus due to it. But we got the alliance!
I bring this up because I agree with Foxx. If you put the time in and make it worth their while an alliance can be taken. The Syndicate is an organization and will always do what is in their own best interest.
Kotrag and Viruthx managed syndicate like i always have felt it should be. We leveraged contracts to push treaties. Provded refusals for big favors, that were convolouted mob style protection rackets.
In the end I believe removing fixed alliances/vendettas from the table would encourage what we had created. I honestly do not believe it limiting at all, more freeing.
Viruthx worked out secret pacts with knights, watchers, even a tribunal. The independent con-man managing and trading hits for favors from the shadows. Pulling strings for the boss. Spying and using the inside knowledge to manipulate everyone.
Remvoing the fixed alliance function would just open the door for this kind of rp more. And it is more what syndicate should be about imo.
All u gotta do is place a huge ass bounty on Nexus and he can't buy it out....well if he has the resources he can but if you make it large enough, he won't be able to.