Locked Rare Purge Time Limit

With the decrease in the amount of rares being seen on PKs or on NPCs, I think a lot, if not most, of us have been seeing/feeling the crunch. Being that I arguably play here more than anyone, I see who plays a lot, not a lot, etc. I'm often on for 15 hours at a time, which means I see people from almost every time zone.

Just using some examples, and I don't mean this as an attack towards anyone behind the characters, just an observation...but some VERY decked people who I seldon see often or for any considerable length of time would be Thulgan and Oppressant. I'm sure they, like so many others like them, once used to play a lot. Else they wouldn't be decked probably, and wouldn't be Elders. But, as often is the case, they fizzle out and just hang out to look badass and inspire fear or whatever they do. But they don't do a lot of it.

You can beat the rare purge by playing less than 30 minutes a day. I can beat the rare purge by playing once a month. Many of you can beat the rare purge by your time in a single week or a couple days. That doesn't seem fair does it?

What if the measurement was different.

Instead of end of the month, what about a check every week, or every two weeks? Make those decked people come out and force them to defend their title, so to speak. I'd LOVE to see how many hours some of them have played last month compared to pbase averages.

What if the pbase average for the month was the measurement purge was gone on? A lenient handicap applied, it could be figured out mathmetically by looking at a couple things? So if the average play time per pinnacles a month was 24 hours, the purge limit would be something like 16.

I just find it very strange that for the past two or three months I've been playing almost nonstop here I see the most decked people extremely rarely.

Makes it even more frustrating when the rare limit seems to be at an alltime low.

I understand some people get bored.

I'm a super decked cabal Elder and I own the other side of the pbase until they all make new characters. Pretty hard for me to wanna be logged on all the time. Yeah? Well too bad. One of the biggest reasons I was an advocate for character # limits. You can't have your cake and it eat it too. You got a decked cabal elder. There WILL be people for you to slaughter. Spend your "victory time" RPing and implementing the goals you had for your character.

I understand sometimes people get RL things that take away their playtime.

We all do, but should the rest of the pbase have to feel the affects of something that is not within their grasp? You started from nothing and became an Elder of your cabal and decked. You can do it again, EASIER this time than when you were uncabaled.

I've noticed one person who I hardly saw AT ALL last month is now playing a lot more. I'll be interested to see if that goes on all month, or if they are just putting in their time to not get purged.

You don't have to agree with my proposed "solutions" but I'm interested in what people think about the rare limit, purge time, and characters, whom should not be attacked in this thread, that are decked and spend a good deal of time not logged on.

Just my thoughts.

Edit1: And I am not using Cabal Elders as my example just to mention current ones...over the course of history in this game, people who are "rare hoarders" have tended to be cabal elders. Multiple factors/reasons for that.

Edit2: Graduated purges is also another idea....the more "decked" you are, the more time added on to the purge limit. Perhaps a simple calculation done on total itemlvl.

Edit3: Forcing people to play their decked, successful characters more would theoretically drive more RP into the game, instead of them making new characters out of boredom.

Now, I can understand you are frustrated because you invest 15 hours a day and don't get your godly rare suit in 3 days, but that is simply not how things work in FL. FL is not so much about activity but more about patience and longivity, two qualities which you seem to be greatly lacking.

I rarely pay attention to my wares. I don't struggle to get that damn suit, I know that if I am long enough around, I will eventually get it. Of course, every time I log there is that guy that pokes about trips to Deso/gear/steel or whatever. What is wrong with you guys? You pay way too much attention to gear. WAY TOO MUCH.

I myself haven't even bothered learning gear, deso/discord and blood. I don't go there unless there is someone who wants to go. That being said, my last characters have been extremely decked.

As for mentioning the two characters, I find that extremly rude.

I've noticed one person who I hardly saw AT ALL last month is now playing a lot more. I'll be interested to see if that goes on all month, or if they are just putting in their time to not get purged.

I am sorry, but who are you to be the judge of anyone?

Foxx, foxx, foxx. :roll: You can stop with your insults towards me because you are extremely ignorant on those matters.

In case you didn't notice, I get my godsuits. Cerihk? Decked. Sarnok? Decked. Tharnog? Decked.

I'm not talking about my frustrations. I'm talking about countless other people's frustrations I've talked to in game trying to help them gear up. Excuse me for trying to think of ideas to help other people out. Stop being a prick.

I'm not judging anyone foxx. I'm stating facts. If stating facts is rude, I'm guilty. I did a case study and presented my findings. To call a pig a pig is not rude.

It would help if people weren't so afraid of you, that they quit/log on their lowbies the moment you show up. Not trying to rub it in anyone's faces but when you have the urge to log out just because someone is logged on, you shouldn't be in the position you are in (it's usually a cabal enemy).

Seen this a lot lately. Not trying to judge, but why should these cabal Elders stick around if no one else will while they're logged on? It's ridiculous, just to have some fun, you have to roll another character because your cabal enemies are too lame to try and overcome you and/or RP with you..

/endrant.

People who loot tend to have problem finding others to fight against.

People who don't 4 round others also have less problems with this.

But if you are a Ogre Ranger that *** Demolishes *** in 4 rounds, and full loots. You suddenly will find people logging off at the sigh of you.

Seen this a lot lately. Not trying to judge, but why should these cabal Elders stick around if no one else will while they're logged on? It's ridiculous, just to have some fun, you have to roll another character because your cabal enemies are too lame to try and overcome you and/or RP with you..

I think this is more spot on than the OP.

I always tend to get in a position where my character truly romps nearly everyone they meet in PK.

All this does is discourage people from playing, so I roll an alt, play them up, usually try to focus less on PK with them. I keep my elder, leader, inspiring character on the DL for a week or so, then go back to them full force. Letting my enemies get footing, letting others enjoy the game. I also very very rarely loot more than a few items. Personally I have always seen becoming an elder, or a PK powerhouse with a particular character as a huge responsibility, you really do have a major effect on the play experience of everyone around you.

The rare purge system is focused on allowing abandoned characters to be filtered out. The key here, is abandoned. Now, you sart moving that line making the game more and more demanding playtime wise... where does it stop?

Just to throw in some facts:

Rare count has not decreased but rather increased in relation to player numbers. We set it WAY higher than the actual pfile number is.

There are two different time limits you need to keep, one is for staying caballed, the other for keeping your rares. The second one demands a lot more hours per month than the first.

We have a lot more players these days who only have a limited amount of playing time, this is mostly due to the fact that the average age has increased, and so we have more and more players with both a job and a family. Already now some of these players find it hard to be able to compete. Imagine how bad it would be if they would also get purged every month with an increased time limit. Few of these would keep playing the game at all.

Rare purges:

A rare purge happens EITHER when you log on a char that has not fullfilled their time limit OR at a certain date, usually in the first 1 - 2 weeks a month. We make the purge varying now to avoid people logging on to get all the rares that have been purged. It is less predictable now.

Also the problem with rares getting lost, be it in the bounty system or elsewhere, has been resolved.

I'd LOVE to see how many hours some of them have played last month compared to pbase averages. While I see no reason for a change, as your post suggests. You and I spend roughly the same amount of time in game. There was once a page on the website that showed names of characters and total number of hours that month. I would like to see it brought back. I personally find it irritating that these cabal elders poke their heads in once or twice a month, as jibber says, and scares off their competition. Meanwhile, a [M] or [V] in the cabal is busting his/her hump to keep up the fight. The elders holding these nice pieces of equipment are decked and avoided while their protege's are getting steam rolled do to equipment rare status. If we could look at the numbers again, we could say, how come this guy is in charge when that guy puts in ten times as many hours. I know time is a resource that we do not all have an equal amount of. But why should a tribune sit ready for promotion weeks, risking his very livlihood, while another tribune gets to out rank him forever for popping his head in now and again? This has been an issue I have had for years. And yes, I know mentioning it, may be taboo, but someone had to say it.

Now now, I never said that these Elders didn't deserve the position's that their in. Not once. They all deserve where they're at because they were once where the M's, and V's, and T's are. Every single one of them. Perhaps even longer than those M's, V's, or T's have even been in the cabal/longer than they've even been in Aabahran.

We also need to take into effect that time and how long someone has been in a cabal has NOTHING to do with E or L. It has everything to do with: RP, PK, and how well you handle situations that come across your table. Good decisions, stellar play, it all takes into effect whether or not you go from V to T, or T to E, or even E to L.

I'm just saying it's hard to log onto an E when everyone logs off when you're that E. It's freaking lame. If people want E or L, or T they need to stay logged on when their enemy E or L is on. They need to work for what they want. I've been there -- I didn't get E on my characters by logging off because I was afraid that I might die to so and so'd E, or might look dumb to my cabal immortal when I died or the E whooped me to hell.

I'm sure any IMM would agree that a cabal member sticking around and enduring while an E or L is around is much more impressive then logging in an insurmountable number of hours.

I just think that an E or L should have certain time requirements regardless of whether their enemies are present or not. After all, they are supposed to be the elders and leaders. I have run countless crews in my lifetime, and if I visited the job sites as seldom as some E's and L's visit Aabahran the projects would never get completed. My men would not look up to me, nor place much faith in my ability to lead. Its all relative. BTW, my earlier post was in NO WAY directed at the Tribunal, I merely used them as an example. Personally, I believe Oppresant logs plenty of hours for his position. So if I offended any of you, I apologize. My observation is based on "old" experiences, where I was often the ONLY active member in my cabal, and others merely visited often enough to keep their positions.

I'm saying we need to work together here. A lot of the playerbase logs off when they see an E or L, unless they're on the same side. Even then, more often then not they aren't. SO, instead of saying E's need to log on more, perhaps we should say: You all need to stop logging off when you think an E might trample you in a fight or make you look lame RP wise.

You're not helping the game, or the Elders stick around.

The entire argument assumes that E and L does not deserve their post anymore because they are not meeting some expectation that you are putting on them.

This is the Imms job to decide, I have been demoted as an E before for not satisfying my cabal imms time requirements, it happens.

On the flip side I have maintained multiple characters, one of them being an E ( doing so right now) while still putting in enough play time to keep my rares, keep my rank, and RP with people. The days I do login my E usually result in deaths for any enemies that are around, who then take the time I am not online (they are glad that I dont login I know) to re-equip and prepare for the next time I happen to be around.

Forcing E's and L's (who are usually pk powerhouses) to login more often would really only detract from the game as a whole. The entire argument, that you want their armor, is really a sad attempt at getting an easy out. An E or L will be around enough to get attacked by any significant enemies, you want their stuff...kill em.

Again, I get decked. I could care less.

This entire argument does not such thing. This entire argument was meant to get a wider view on the subject instead of just my mine. Never once in my argument have I said I wanted their armor.

I ran into countless people who complained about regearing issues in game. They ask me "Who has the voulge" or "Who has the bonedragon ring" And then when I tell them, they frown and sigh and say "Yeah, well, they are never around." and that got me to start to notice playtimes from certain people more. Some of them play a lot, but just aren't on in the time zone of the person complaining about the item....others, a very select few, but who are ABNORMALLY decked, seem to play the very minimum requirement and don't do much when they are on except PK.

Just my 2Ç and wanted to see how many people were actually disgruntled by the rare circulation these days with such a small pbase. My chars get decked. Either by playing more hours than everyone else and constantly looking/locating things or by systematically killing ten people and looting one or two pieces to build a suit. Rather than wait for hours to face super_decked_hoarder and fight an uphill battle. Even if I win the battle and they get away and log off...who knows how long til you get a chance again.

Again' date=' I get decked. I could care less.[/quote']

You mean, "I couldn't care less"?

Whenever I get decked I seem to hold it just long enough to think I will have it forever, then I get either SMASHED or some bad luck rolls me and I get a full loot. Sometimes it's nice to start fresh, but logging onto that pimp suit is always nice.

You all need to stop logging off when you think an E might trample you in a fight or make you look lame RP wise.

You're not helping the game, or the Elders stick around.

While I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment expressed here... it is worth remembering that getting smashed really, really sucks. We have egos, and we don't like bruising them - a rationalized "I'll fight him when I'm ready" doesn't sting nearly as much as getting steamrolled.

Also, for those of us who don't play very often, it's extremely difficult to regear, and risking a full loot when you've finally got a decent set going is risking the last few weeks/months of playing taking a major blow.

Forcing more activity on elders (or more decked chars) will make the time of I/M/Vs of the opposite cabal quite pathetic. I don't know about you, but I for one enjoy the time when my watcher inductee doesn't have to face two decked tribunal elders.

Actually I believe that forcing more activity on stronger and more decked characters would hurt the game more (for multiple reasons too), rather than do any good.

Also, considering that the only reason for someone to want more activity from such chars is that they can't get their godly suit fast enough, is a bit selfish.

Don't take this as a personal attack boobies, I know you are trying to help the game and I know your last chars got decked anyway... I am just speaking in general

I honestly think that more than just a change to the time played needed to keep large suits or whatever. Maybe if people could stop being so ruthless in all respects of the game? I play ruthless players all the time, my RP is very dark or very light or rarely neutral. I kill more than my share and when I see them and I'm decked to the teeth, I don't loot anything. They get all gear they got back, depending on my class I may take their bags and gold. But I never full loot. Maybe it's more on the matter of looting that needs to be changed? Like make it so once you have a certain amount of rares, you can only loot a certain amount? Making their looting more a pick and choose type of looting. Oh look he has the 1 piece I still need, I'm gonna kill him and take it and everything he has just to be a dick. And don't argue, most people are not doing it so they can "get time" or whatever for cabal affairs. Most people full loot to "keep RP" and be dicks. I did it once upon a time too. I know we have moderate system, but it is there for new players to get their footing, not to force people into it cause there are decked this or decked that and you don't want to be full-looted by a power-raping from someone decked. This is 1 main reason I like Heiku, not to call you out or anything man, but I've died to him with a character since I returned and he did not loot a thing but my consumables. He is a class that needs them, so I understood. But I definitely had bunches of things he could have taken that were better than his and he didn't. Now I don't know if it was because I got to my corpse fast enough, but he had 2 ticks. That's more than enough time, also he is a DK and kind of a jerk so I expected a full loot/sac. Win for you man.

End rant.

Just my 2 cents

I know I've been spared the monster loot by some people that have gotten me since I've been back too. The amount of full looting by people changed for a number of reasons. I know I don't do it nearly as often as I used to.

A) People just whine WAY too much and it's annoying.

People rage-delete or quit playing, we dont want that

C) Like B the pbase is smaller now and we don't wanna discourage ppl

D) If I steamroll u and get CP...I want u to stay around, so why loot?

E) Full looting is now like ganging in that you get a "trashy" rep

Pick and choose, mix and match...but those are the basic reasons that people who USED to full loot, including myself, do not anymore. Some people still full loot because they need to. They need that feeling of "owning" someone.

Reasons why I WILL full loot:

1. You disrespect my character in game.

2. You full looted me or a cabalmate or close RP-friend

3. You are a MONSTER like Istendil, Heiku, Thulgan, Sartach, Seppy, etc

In case #3 out of respect for your character I would not full lot, but take 3-4 of your best items to weak you for others less skilled or less fortunate than I. In case #1 I grow severely tired of people who have nothing but crap like spitting on you or cursing you or otherwise disrespecting you after you kill them AND DON"T LOOT AT ALL. To me, you and your character are just asking to get waxed again. Doesn't hurt my feelings or pride at all...but I know you are losing something in more ways than one. So keep it up, I love 8000 CPs.

I personally will always loot weapons if I can. I do usually take all rares too. As istendil I full looted three times, all different cases were justified IMO. Every other time I've taken a few very nice rares and sacrificed all the weapons of my victims on istendil. Can't tell you how many people have gone blatantly OOC with me and spat/swore they'd kill and full loot me.

Regardless, I rarely full loot. If I do, I don't have to explain myself or beg you to stick around.. (I don't wanna play with peeps like that) but you darn well bet I have a good reason or 5.