This one with the tattoo that you mentioned is just one of the Many I can think of.There are around 20 of them.
Locked Rare Purge Time Limit
...there are 20 decked people holding up cabal spots that are playing only a handful of hours a month?
Seriously?
This one with the tattoo that you mentioned is just one of the Many I can think of.There are around 20 of them.
Yeah, lets purge all those who you "think" are innactive because they don't deserve their rares 
On the other hand, you surely deserve them. I mean come on, you play 5 hours a day!
Why you talk about me only?Do you know how many people gave up playing because of this?I chat with them everyday.
I can say that it has never been worse, there were people complaining before that they were not rares and I still managed to find.When now I simply can't
Why you talk about me only?Do you know how many people gave up playing because of this?I chat with them everyday.
Yeah, I can't agree more. There is a complete lack of rares these days. I know rares are supposed to be "rare" but not "non-existent". Does that mean I didn't manage to get a character equiped? No, but I had to nearly break RP to start fights with the right people to get the equipment. I feel bad for any neutral right about now, if someone doesn't give you a reason to kill them then you're SOL in terms of rares.
I still just find it ridiculous that some people can hold rares that have 0 PK interactions these days. Plenty of you know who you are that do it. If you got it, put it on the line in order to "deserve" it. Just cause you lucked out and found it, pked for it, or however you got it. Doesn't mean that now you got it, sit on it and never let another even try to get it from you. That's just selfish and greedy.
I rarely, if ever, play evils anymore cause the requirements for RP in terms of PK is null. I'm evil, you're alive, I kill. That's all you need to be evil, but god I'm about to make an evil for the reason of, I want gear, you have it, I'm taking it! This is just getting a bit out of hand in terms of, I can't even find crap rares that people didn't want before. That's bad.
Ending rant with thanks to those of you who do not shelf and actually delete a character when you're done with them. Or those who when you shelf, you sac your gear. That's much better than these perma-hoarding shelving people.
15 hours a month.
30 minutes a day.
~4 hours a week.
OR 3 days of 5 hours and then don't play for 3-4 weeks.
I don't think there is 20 super decked people who barely make the purge limit. I do think there is ~5 with the best gear in the game who are not a contributing factor in FL's world.
It's not a matter of a level playing field, as Pali put it. It is about people who are not playing this game but are allowed to keep the best armor away from the people who DO play their characters, who DO actively try to make a difference in RP/PK at 50, and who DO deserve currently to be able to experience upper echelon gear.
I can only use myself as an example since I can't call anyone else out by name.
I am decked. Not full adeptus and +spell lvl like other people, but that is only because they are not on for me to kill, or my RP unfortunately doesn't allow for it. However, I have a set of gear that 75% of the playerbase wishes they had. What do I do? I play insane hours and fight almost anyone I can and try to bring quality RP to the game.
I could very easily be like some of these other people and just log in enough to show off my uber set to newbs and then log off. Play a few alts to take up my time, maybe log in if I see an ally that I want to chat with.. But definitely don't log in if I see that other decked cabal enemy...heaven forbid I enhance the game by matching my skills and super eq vs their skills and super eq. I'd rather just keep my eq and "undefeated" aura.
You can argue that it is me/other people who just want the eq. However you are failing to look at the other side of the coin. It is the people HOARDING the eq that care too much about it. I care for the quality of this game. Not allowing people who play this game actively to enjoy/share/experience the finer equipment in the game is not fair.
Very well said ma man, very well said.
...there are 20 decked people holding up cabal spots that are playing only a handful of hours a month?
Seriously?
This post has been mainly about rare hoarding. The fact that most of the rare hoarders happen to be cabaled is additionally sad, but also it is besides the point. I have mentioned it in conjuction with rare hoarding, but not as a seperate issue.
Again, you can be cabaled all you want for all I care. Play your minimum hours if that's all you can. What I wouldn't want to see is someone purposefully only playing minimum hours, avoiding cabal warfare, and playing 1-3 alts while they cabal is full and there are active people who can't get in because of people like you.
To reiterate:
The majority of the people who play here do so expecting to reach 50 and have a reasonable expectation of seeing certain things. Seeing their character RP develop and be influenced by the world around them, shaped by other players and Immortals alike. Fight solid and balanced fight with a competitive and fair equipment system. Roleplay with quality characters and help shape the world for the next set of characters to reach 50.
What we have now is equipment being stored on characters that do not play actively enough to be an asset to the world. In turn this causes people who are active, who do contribute to the game, to lose out on a fun and important aspect of the game. Not just PK, but because these super-decked higher ranking cabal members don't play actively, you lose the RP as well.
Why would I care to follow orders from an Elder who is never around to back me up or enforce his directions? Not just from an OOC point of view, but an IC one mainly. If I'm a two man army fighting a three man army with better gear...my super armored general tells me to fight them, but my super armored general never does, and I get continually spanked by the other army. You really think I'm going to respect my general?
There are three levels of eq in my opinion. For sake of argument we'll just say GOOD BETTER BEST
GOOD eq is still hard to find. We're talking double plated leggings, etc.
BETTER eq is not often found on the mobs anymore. Banner, Crown, Fire Lance, etc. This CAN be found in game on some semi-active people.
BEST eq has not been on the mobs in almost 3 months with very little exception. Adeptus, +spell lvl, rokujan, etc
People with GOOD eq and equal or lesser skill are having to fight each other for scraps and fight the people with BETTER eq and get killed and sometimes full looted.
The people with the BEST eq hardly ever play and when they do, they VERY RARELY put themselves at risk. And if they do, you can't expect someone with GOOD eq to beat someone with the BEST eq. Even if they do catch them with their pants down, the person with the BEST eq runs off and logs off and isn't seen again for two weeks.
I have NEVER seen in the past 3 months 2 people with BEST eq fight each other. And there are.....3 that I can think of that are responsibility bound to fight each other.
I take that back actually....in 3 months I know of ONE fight that happened. A cabal Elder than I have seen 5 times in 3 months fought a cabal trusted that I have seen maybe 10 times in 3 months. No one died, they both logged off and again I see either of them extremely rarely.
Add in life insurance to this equation and you've got people who will keep their eq for months at a time with virtually no risk at losing it. All the while the people who play their characters actively, RP and PK actively and without abandon.....they are missing out on a fun, motivational part of this game. Why?
Has everyone so quickly forgotten the advent of cabal outfits and the Merchant Cabal?
In my experience Merchants seem to consistently have decent to good rares for sale, and you can even buy entire outfits of armor from them that are VERY competitive at 50. I was actually surprised at how good those outfits were, especially when supplemented/substituted with easy to get items (some rare, some not) in key slots.
I understand the frustration with players keeping rares when you don't see them for long lengths of time, but we all have to remember that not everyone can spend countless hours a day/week/month playing a game, and that in the end that's what FL is. If someone can only spend 30 minutes to an hour a day playing, why should they feel bad for playing to the maximum of their potential? If someone can only spend that time, should they try to focus on one character? Probably. Can we force them to? Not without changing some fundamental ideas behind this game.
Zrothum president!
If they played 30 minutes a day, that would be fine. Or even a couple hours a week.
However, as I said. The current system allows someone to play a flurry of hours in the first couple days....and then never play again in the month. And that is being done.
Futhermore, they shouldn't feel bad if that truly is all they can play. However, no one can ONLY play the first couple days in a month but then play their alt(s) at other times.
The principle behind my argument is that if you aren't going to play the game...don't hog the EQ from people who do. It is sad that most of these people are quality players and I know as well as they do that they got the eq somehow in the first place and they could get it again.
I even understand and sympathize with their position and could make an argument FOR them. However the more morale of the two arguments is the one that says to give up your things if you cannot bear the state of the game.
Yes, people will be afraid of you and prolly log off because u are so decked. Yes it is frustrating, yes it is boring. TOO BAD. That is the game we have. Either play it, or give up your eq/position so people who WILL play can experience those things.
My chars get decked and play crazy hours.
I'm purposely calling this line out because it disproves your own later points, mma. I understand everyone's frustration (and feel it too) but you argue from both ends of this thing. If common rares are the only thing that people can get with good rares being attainable but less likely and the best rares being impossible, how do your characters get decked? You've made this same statement across a couple of threads IIRC.
I'm not saying that the system is perfect or even good, but I am saying that I think it works in much the way people who are hot and heavy for a new system would like it to work: you put in the time and you get the eq.
Once you've earned the equipment it's very tough for a system to be put in place that is both fair to RL circumstances and isn't exploitable, and I'd rather have a system that understands when I go on a two week vacation without penalizing me for having a real life than a system that is strict enough to completely eliminate "hoarding." I don't really see a way that you could have both without some major revamping.
My chars get the BETTER eq, not the BEST. Though every now and then I get the chance for something from the BEST category.
With BETTER eq and superior skill and insane hours I can build up a decent set, better than GOOD eq but still not quite in the BEST category. However it is good enough for me because the people with the BEST eq are practically never seen so they are not a threat. Which means my BETTER eq vs equal or lesser skilled people in GOOD or even BETTER eq means it is either a level playing field or an advantage for me.
But that is ME. It's not the countless people in GOOD eq trying to fight the people in BETTER eq who are more experienced in a lot of cases.
So I'd argue it doesn't disprove anything but only adds to it. In order to even get the decent set I have, I have to go on a murderous rampage and play 15 hours a day.
Who else can do that? Not many.
To steer this back on topic:
What about my earlier suggestions in this thread for aggregate item lvl purges
Basically, the more rares you keep, the more you must play to keep them. The higher the item lvl, the more responsibility you have.
I also think the T+ cabal position time requirements should stack onto this.
You will not get Elder in your cabal by playing 5 days out of the month. You shouldn't deserve to keep it by only playing that either.
It's not about what you DID or who you WERE. It's about what are you doing today that enhances this MUD? In your prime if you were active and whatever and earned it all, that's great. But champions don't earn something and then keep it forever. Not the physical elements of it anyway. You will be remembered as being great, but you don't need to keep other people from having the things you have if you aren't going to use them and give something back to the game actively.
I'd like to see Hero lvl51's brought back too. Something these old farts can aspire to and then not even have to worry about rare hoarding, etc.
Once again, your hours are off. You need more than 15 hours to keep a rare set. I won't tell you the exact number but your guesses with 10 or 15 hours are too low an estimate.
I don't need to know the exact hours for my argument to be intact though.
If I can play for 3-5 days out of the month and then NOT play for the rest of the month and keep every piece of high lvl rare/unique equipment that I have then I would be of the opinion that system may need to be altered.
Which is it a bigger deal now than it used to be?
When you have 30-50 people online there was A LOT more of this wealth spread around. You also saw more action back then and things traded hands more. People were more motivated to play their decked characters.
However now when you don't even have half that amount of players, all it takes is a couple people to have suits of the best armor in the game and to not play.
Again, you are not correct. There are as many rares around now than there used to be around years ago as we have set the count back to what it used to be for years after our short experiement with lower rare numbers.
The rare count does not directly reflect pfile numbers at the moment, nor has it for years.
If someone plays a lot of hours for 3 - 5 days that should give plenty opportunity to pk them. I highly doubt that someone will make it their hobby or habbit to play 3 days every month and then never log in again for the rest of the month. Such might happen ONCE if the person is busy with real life or on holidays. If they also hold a high cabal spot, they usually let their cabal Imm know via prayer forum that and why they will be gone for such a long time to avoid getting kicked out or demoted. We highly recommend doing this, btw.
I'm not saying or really trying to argue necessarily that the rare limitis low. I'm saying that the count of rares being circulated is not in a way that suits the game these days. Whether that is a rare limit issue, or a rare hoarding issue, or a mixture...it is still a noticeable problem. One in which I don't claim to know all of the details, but I have noticed over the course of 3 months a very large contributor to it.
It has been 3 months and I have noticed the same pattern with the characters I have in mind. I predicted it at the start of this month with one in particular that I randomly picked because he happened to be online at the time I was writing this and he was the one I had seen the least amount, I predicted he would disappear after that for weks... and it happened just as I said it would.
It does give a lot of opportunity to whoever happens to be playing at that specific time interval. However should that opportunity cease to exist for the next 25+ days because the person will be a virtual ghost in the game? I saw the person today for the first time in almost 3 weeks. Between which I've seen his alt more times I have than the character in question.
I'm very understanding of personal issues and the like. But it should be the exception and not the rule. I gave it 2 months before I decided to offer some new thought/idea/suggestions on it, just to rule out anything like that. Over the course of 8 weeks the same behaviors were exhibited and so I felt comfortable in making the statements I've made.