I stick with a character for as long as there are goals left to achieve, and almost never delete when there is a carrot hanging just out of reach.
There are simple goals like an invoker attaining spells. So I'll rarely delete an invoker until I get to the last ones, even if I hate the character.
There are exploration type goals - a while back, no one had killed Tiamat, so I made it a character goal to do it.
There are PK type goals. I'll see some badass lich or anti-paladin on qhcf logs or hearing people complain about him/her, so I'll roll a character to PK that badass. Or I'll try to beat some prior character's PK total (without being a total jackass or ignore RP).
New race/class/cabal type goals that I haven't played before, etc.
Become an Imm and write an area goals.
Etc.
Basically, for me, the most engaging part of CF is that you can set challenging goals and achieve them. When I was younger, that used to substitute for life achievement, but fortunately I matured :) Trying to achieve those goals is what keeps me churning through the more tiresome or annoying parts of the game.
ETA:
The least engaging parts of CF for me are (1) ranking, (2) Imm-pets that get a ton of rewards always bug me because I never get any, (3) any in game or out of game interaction with Beront and Dwoggurd :)))))))))))))))
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/2017 01:11PM by Balrahd.