Posted by Imbrogno(VIP) on August 21, 2000 at 07:55:42:
There's something to be said about being the underdog, but CF takes "underdogism" to extremes beyond the bounds of rational choice. There is no logging in and seeing that you're outgunned 2:1, a reasonably fair ratio, it's more often that you log in and find yourself outgunned 4:1, as is the case now if you're a non-battlerager(Imperial, Arbiter, Master, etc.). Personally I think it's pretty lame that everybody participates in this mass exodus every time a new leader of battle is chosen. It wasn't 2 weeks ago that everybody was playing an Imperial or an Arbiter. I remember telling Quintius that I thought he needed about 10 more arbiters and I was being sarcastic. People talk about the pendulum's swing, and I agree that that should be a part of Theran life, but why not keep the pendulum from crashing through the sides of the clock? I think we need to moderate the damn thing, because inevitably a greater balance makes the game more fun for the entire playerbase, not just the duckies that walk in line to the winning team. My proposal then is induction limits. You take the total number of players(obviously an imm has to do this), subtract 50 and then divvy up the remainder between the cabals. The 50 is to leave room for the uncaballeds and to make sure that our work is not negated by setting the limits too high. By my estimate 50 should be roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of the total CF playerbase which I figure is somewhere between 150 and 200. You take the remaining amount and divvy it up between cabals like this(working with 150 as total number of players) Arbiter:15 These numbers are set 1)with strength of powers 2)mindset of the cabal and 3)usual alliances in mind. Empire gets the most because their powers are arguably the weakest when not thought of as a unit, but their strength is based on their numbers and they don't usually align with anybody for an extended period of time, therefore they get 30 members. Master powers are one of the better sets, and they're generally non-aggressive which means their impact on the rest of uncaballed playerbase is minimal, and they don't usually align with any other cabal unless the situation demands it(overpopulation of ragers), therefore they get 25. Battle powers are also one of the better sets, generally affect the uncaballed players in a very real way(ragers will kill anything that moves simply because they can), and don't usually align with anybody unless the leaders are insane(see Minalcar and Empire), therefore(as much as it pains me), they get 25 as well. Arbiter, Dawn, Sylvan, and Entropy each get 15. I will concede to the fact that the game is often less fun when it's overrun by Arbiters so they get 15 which ideally would get split into the three thirds, 5 for good, 5 for neutral, and 5 for evil, but that would likely never happen. I debated on whether or not to include Dawn at all, but decided that I would since they do tend to get involved in cabal wars more than they should. Sylvan only gets 15 1)because they're powers are just too good to unleash en masse upon the land and 2)their mindset is one that lends itself to smaller numbers. Entropy got 15 only because I wanted to keep them on par with arbiters, though I realize they hardly ever have that many regular players at any given time(I maintained the list of barons during my stint as Imbrogno and 15 was usually above the number of "active" barons. Scarab got 10 so as not to waste too much on them. It's a cool cabal but I don't think their number has reached 10 since the Matraein, Tikich, etc. time period, and maybe not even then. What this does is moderate the swing of the pendulum so we don't have a period like now where we're overrun by Battleragers and nobody can stop them. I can't imagine this truly being any fun since there's no competition(I know I was bored after the battleragers were forced into hiding and nobody wanted to be a criminal with 10 arbiters constantly around). It also enforces the idea that cabals are for the better roleplayers amongst us and should be seen as a privelege, not a right. Moreover, it will add further intrigue to the idea of alliances since battle might be forced to come to terms with sylvan or scarab or whoever in order to deal with the greater number of Empire. Anybody who inducts would have access to the limit and their current number. The induct ability will no longer work when the limit is reached. Leaders would be expected to keep track of their active members and anybody who doesn't contribute to the cause(this means they have to log on fairly regularly for at least an hour at a stretch, none of this "I'll log on for 5 minutes just to keep a char in the cabal" bullshit) gets uninducted to free up the space for somebody who will. A likely side-effect of this would be that a player could only have 1 caballed character at a time which is how it should be.
Battle:25
Dawn:15
Empire:30
Entropy:15
Master:25
Scarab:10
Sylvan:15
Troupe:not included