I recognize that none of this is new, but still felt the need to throw it out there.

I personally kind of like the ABS system. For someone who doesn't get to play a whole lot anymore, but sticks to mostly mages, I honestly don't see what the big problem is. Over the span of probably 4 or 5 mages I've managed to put together IC what I feel like is a pretty comprehensive list of locations. I know I'm obviously still missing plenty (the character I'm playing right now just found his amber in a spot I had no clue existed) but for the most part, I've got enough of a list to generally be able to find 2 of my 3.

The other thing I've gathered over those 4 or 5 chars and with the help of detect artifact is a pretty good list of stock ABS wands/talismans. Between having 1 or 2 sleeks, the generic class shield spell, and grabbing a few stocks, I can generally have ABS anytime I'd like to put a little effort into a character.

Granted I enjoy the exploration aspect of CF, but I'm still surprised when so many people complain about the system and have no knowledge of even some fairly obvious stock wands.

Some characters take more effort than others, a couple of times I have had to resort to an attunement edge, but all in all I'm perfectly happy with the system and really enjoy those moments when I stumble across wands (especially like recently when it's somewhere totally new).

I would have probably kept my views to myself as I normally do, but I'm all about someone's recent post about how if we want any kind of player base, the game and these forums needs to be more positive so I'll start tossing in the things I like.