Idea for cabal applicants

[Rezakhan]

I was thinking about ways to, if not necessarily actually increase the playerbase, at least encourage people to hang onto their characters longer and rage delete less. To that end, how about a two-tiered cabal application system? Here's what I had in mind:

First tier--Keep the current system in place (though I think rank 25 is a bit low, but that's a different post). Apply by rank 25, get squired or whatever the Legion/Justice/Keeper equivalent is, get to rank up a bit, then get either accepted or not. This system seems to work well, and some form of it has generally been in place as long as I can remember.

Second tier--Allow people who have 'proved' themselves to apply to a cabal at rank 50. By proved themselves, I don't mean just reaching 50 and knocking out a few kills on the way up. I mean characters who are legitimately known in the realms as fighters, roleplayers, etc. This really will apply mostly to only Legion and Knight, since I can't imagine too many people playing non-Justice lawfuls to such a level, and can't imagine anyone playing a non-Keeper neutral/neutral to that level.

First, I'll talk about some of the drawbacks I see to this system, then I'll talk about the benefits. In my mind, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, but I'm curious to see what you all think.

The drawbacks:

1) Allowing people to skate to 50 without the grind of being in a cabal--Once someone is caballed (or even squired, in the Knights case), he gets a target on his back. All kinds of people start gunning for you, and never more so than when you're making the rank 42->50 climb. Allowing people to apply to cabals while already at 50 lets them dodge this.
-This to me is the biggest drawback to my proposal, but I think it can be dealt with by fairly rigidly enforcing the 'proved himself' standard. Limit this only to people who have been at 50 for a while, who have been involved in fighting, who have roleplayed well. Basically, just don't allow people to make the end-run around the grind--make sure there's a legitimate reason the person didn't apply earlier, rather than just wanting to rank fast and then get in.

2) From a roleplay standpoint, you want to make sure you get characters in cabals who really want to be there. Here, you run the risk of letting people not really act like a Knight for most of their lives, then deciding they want in. Or you get an evil who has spent his life up to 50 being nice and avoiding trouble, then deciding he wants to start killing people for the Legion.
-I think again this mostly can be dealt with by rigorously scrutinizing anyone who wants in at 50. Conversely, I think this would open a whole lot of new roleplay opportunities, which would be a positive. Someone who acted like a pacifist for most of his life, then finally is killed one too many times and is inspired to take up arms and join the Knights. Someone who is a feared killer and has warred with the Legion his whole life, who decides he would be stronger as their leader than against them. Etc.

The benefits:

1) Sometimes you just don't know how a character is going to turn out. While it's easy to say that you should have an idea for your character from creation, in reality it's often hard to do, and sometimes those ideas change. My first ever berserker I thought was going to be a brawler, until I realized I sucked with berserkers and he became a Herald. Conversely, I've had guys who I didn't expect to do much fighting turn out to be pretty good at it. The point is, sometimes you end up with characters you don't expect a whole lot out of who turn out to be serious characters for your. It would be nice to have some way to turn that into cabal life.

2)Could encourage people to stick with uncaballed characters longer. It seems like there are a lot of characters (some of mine included) who end up deleting in the 36-45 rank range. I think there's a combination of factors that go into that, including increased difficulty in ranking at that point, powerranking to that point b/c it's hard to effectively train at lower ranks, etc. But I think one of the main reasons is that people don't really see a goal for their character at that point. You get up close to 50, sometimes even at 50, and realize that the life of an uncaballed can be pretty dull--you don't get buff skills/items, you don't really participate in good warfare unless one side or the other tags you for it, you don't have a built-in group backing you up, no matter how friendly you get with caballed characters you'll never be as important to them as their cabalmates, etc. This would add a new possibility for someone to breathe new life into their character, or at least give them something to aim for instead of just tossing him away and starting a new guy.

3) Finally, you get people who are likely to stay in the cabal for a while. There are always complaints about characters getting caballed then rage-deleting shortly after induction. If you pick up one or two additional people through this new method, you're picking up people who have shown a willingness to keep their character going, stick with him through battles, through ups and downs, etc. Far less likely to get a rage-delete with the first gangbang if you're inducting someone you know has gone through it before.

Anyway, that's my general thoughts on the matter. Like I said, I'm curious to see what feedback anyone has, particularly as regards any drawbacks I haven't thought about.

[Arishel]

Wrong forum for this post. Use Ideas and suggestions next time, please.

[Esivole]

[Ceridwel]

What better way to prove yourself worthy of being in a cabal than to defend against someone 8 ranks your senior while they're invading on your sorry ass, and finding the time/smarts to rank up to 50 with that target on your back. No amount of non-cabal activity could prove your worth as well as the 40-to-50 caballed grind, in my opinion.

Note that at least for Knights, being a Footman really is like being on probation. A noble actually outranks a footman, and you can be kicked back down to squire for screwing up (like Navari was).

[Erlwith]

tl;dr

[Tepesh]

hey no need to bring up Navari (me) lol but yeah this seems cool and all but once you start rolling a character you need to know what you want either cabaled or uncabaled. Yes you can get kicked back down from footman if you screw up or in my case talk back to an "immortal" on cabal chat which is what i did.

The whole 42-50 gauntlet is what really make a character a character. It would be too easy to just power rank to 50 and apply. Yes it does suck being the only one active in a cabal which has happened to me a few times but still its part of the game.

[Erlwith]

Being in a cabal alone is the most fun I've had in cabals. You get pity when you get raped 5v1 and props when you beat down some noobs 1v3. You make a name for yourself and are more likely for promotions/leadership. Best part is you get major leeway when you fuck up.