Discussion topic for cabal mechanics

[Davairus]

Here's the gist

benefits:
- cabal powers to help kill your targets
- defender pots / medic scroll / etc
- a buff guardian, confinement skills, henchmans, in your cabal area
- instant friends

drawbacks:
- mandatory targets (but this agrees with your character philsophy anyway)
- considerably more vulnerability than uncaballed while levelling up
- you have to defend your "item" against any odds
- you have to take the retrieve deathmarch

If there is anything you are not happy with, this is your topic. p.s. Its supposed to be fun.

[Kedaleam]

I like how cabals are set up right now, benefits really equal out to the drawbacks, if not even better.

[Devin_Smoth]

I personally still have yet to get into a Cabal other than Heralds... but from what I've seen and read about... they look good in general.

[Slade]

Defenders are ok, medics and restorers not so much. For something so useful characters are almost obligated to use them which means a ton of gold farming - not fun for consumables you can burn through so quickly. Find some other way to rebalance those classes. Hard to tell how much anyone cares about the last two drawbacks, people non defend, non retrieve, non chase flags, or at the least simply make sure nothing is a deathmarch and leave regardless of situation.

[_Clifton_]

Restorer Wands are almost abusive if you have the gold for it. Xertiwin would heal 50% heal in 1 tick by spamming that zap.

Non-defending can result in getting kicked from cabal.

From what I recall, I like the setup

[Erlwith]

I think cabal mechanics work great, other than the open PK areas which to me seem to do nothing but circumvent PK ranges. And the product is less low level cabal chars logging in. Haven't seen Rulo since Urxu was invading. And I fail to see how getting creamed by a level 50 at 40 is "fun" or a productive use of free time spent. As far as individual cabals, they could use some balancing. Things like Knights having infinite moves is just cheap. Or if you do give them powers like that, perhaps consider balancing it out with other less useful cabal powers.

I don't see Legion getting anywhere with a bunch of active Knights that can rape any up and coming Legion they want. Against a loaded cabal, Legion is going to get their ass handed to them once they enter 50 range anyway, so why start that at 40? Evidence to players quitting out when the odds are against them is everywhere you look, so why in heavens do you think placing any low level cabal char at a permanent disadvantage is going to promote cabal activity?

The early 40s should, I think (read: my personal opinion), be a safety net for cabal chars. Give them an opportunity to get used to cabal life, practice and prepare for when they do enter the range of 50s. They won't be free of fighting of course, there will be plenty of non cabal chars and cabal chars alike in range to fight with.

[Esura]

I'd rather have the open PK areas rather than defending against out of range invaders with henchmen. Henchman battles are boring, it doesn't actually stop any level 50 from getting the item, and it just drags out the time until your item finally does get taken. You can't kill anyone with henchmen unless your opponent is just absolutely inept. Getting creamed at level 40 is not fun or productive, but it's less of a waste of time than henchman combat. And yeah, I'm completely biased on this matter. So maybe Erlwith's right about open PK areas not working very well, but they sure work a heck of a lot better than henchmen.

By the way, I heard Rulo kicked Urkxu's butt, and if that's true then that's not a good example of open PK areas being a bad thing.

[Erlwith]

Heh.

[_Clifton_]

[Davairus]

I would like to see it viable to get inducted at level 25 again, I think the system has always been unforgiving towards that, in all of its forms. But as for 40's there's been a greater concern for them just being niche trash (e.g. Zemnahn) than needing to get "adjusted". And as for stallions, I thought it hilarious that they were actually still thought of as buff after the amount of nerfing that's been put down. But sure I'll nerf them more. Happy to.

edit - deleted some OFF-TOPIC garbage

[Bones V2.0]

[Merindol]

It would be really nice if you guys made a cabal strictly for newbies to join. The cabal could have a hall with no powers and a basic item. This would get newbies the chance at cabal life and perhaps get them ready to join a real one. The downside to this would be legion/knight/justice ganking them over and over but you gotta learn sometime.

I think the main cabal structure works fine the way it is. The open PK area's are fine because you're in a cabal for a reason right? You are the best of the best. Just rank to 50 as fast as you can, save those surges for when you really need them.

[Erlwith]

What about starter clans. Example, Knights would have a squire clan for potentials. The potentials would have a channel they could use to communicate and also provide a way to send notes to all applicants (from the executor, etc.) While in the starter clan you could also gain points/ranks for certain kills anathema/contracted/evil/good etc. Which the Cabal could use to keep track of your activity and skill level. I think the main thing any MUD on the net has going for it is community. This will broaden the community aspect of the game I think a good deal.

[_Clifton_]

[Davairus]

I'm sure the idea could work, but I don't really like it. I think arena duels are an established means of low level practice and might be better to just offer eq rewards there to encourage more players to participate in them. A cabal shouldnt really pretend to be interested in a warrior that doesnt know how or when to use hobble and bash.

[pip]

lower level cabal guardians against lower level cabal member. fighting the guardians through the 30's an even early 40's is a bitch in itself, now you got instant curse, initiate lightning bolts, constant dispels, henchman and even worse, players can pk you inside cabal now, so maybe make the guardians the same rank as their opponent if not even weaker. i've noticed in my time in cabals that there isn't much you can do against some of the 50's when they are taking the item and then it being impossible to get it back once they run through your item keeper.

[Adebaldi]

I don't really have anything useful to say about general cabal rules, but I do think that stallions should also follow illusionist through regular gate not only group gate. Because of that reason I rarely dragged my stallion around and when I did it was only because of RP reasons anyway.

[Mandor]

[Davairus]

From what I can tell, everybody is mostly happy. I think that's a positive sign, there are meant to be advantages and disadvantages, so obviously you *should* see things you like and things you don't. As for open pk area, the problems without it are worth being rid of. I feel bad for a lowbie in a cabal being raided/owned by some guy ..who wouldn't. On the other hand, the lowbies will deliberately not level just to get in the way if its kept one-sided. Just like they used to raid out of pk and item retrieve out of pk before henchman. We just changed the "henchman" from a mob to a player. Anyway, looks good.

[Mandor]