Stealing a thread from a local cake, I'm going to ask a very simple question to satisfy my personal curiosity and perhaps give me some ideas to steal.

What sort of things would you like to see in EFU when we're back up?

Longer quests Please! Just with more traps, less monsters, locked doors, puzzles, and headache causing situations!

I want the server to never go down again once it gets back up.

But seriously, it might be nice to have some quests changed around or randomized a bit, like suggested by other people instead of it always being gnolls it could be a camp of an unknown race(s).

More love for the Spellguard! Just kidding. We get plenty of love.

More server changing metaplots ala the plague and lizardfolk invasion. I love those plots, and they're a great way to get more than one group of players involved. The more factions they effect, the better.

I agree with the above statements. Seeing some of the regular quests changed would be a very nice surprise, especially when you catch someone anouncing for a quest that is incorrect about what you are planning to face :twisted: . Of course, anything that will help huge plots get into motion are always welcomed.

More wilderness areas and hidden secretz.

I can't control quests to a high degree since I'm not a scripter, but I'll see if we can change some of the older quests up some so they're not the same old thing.

Metaplots I'm iffy on. I'll try running one in the future but I like my focus to be on a more personal level, but that's just my own taste.

Wilderness areas? I like the thought of that. I'll consider adding a couple unique places in odd parts of the Underdark. As for hidden secretz, oh trust me there are more than plenty. The playerbase hasn't even delved into the really juicy secrets of the gameworld yet!

More NPC possessions. Both small and random, and intricate planned interactions that are meaninful. Requesting DM possessions are like begging for sex. It kinda takes the surprise and intrinsic joy from it.

DMs are DMs because of their demonstration of good to great RP skills along with other things. My earlier memories of EfU were frequent Councilor, merchant and random NPC possessions. However, now NPC possessions seem relatively rare and seem tailored for certain PCs or factions.

Not only can good RP be modeled by our DMs, but it adds amazing depth to the setting. Plus I'd think the DMs get to have fun as well, as many of the my most favorite characters were run by DMs. (End gratuitous knob slobbering)

Along with that, I'd like the notable NPCs to be advancing their own agendas somewhat, and along with that - interacting with PCs positively or negatively as a result. They are people with their own dealios too.

When NPC actions and RP are dovetailed with serverwide events, it gives the server the feel of epic tales unfolding. Too much secretive, PC driven and faction oriented activites may tend to isolate some players, particularly new ones.

Fewer un-pickable locks, and undisarmable traps! I'd like to see a few of the locks and traps with really high DCs to make them less attainable or difficult to disarm (possibly entirely out of reach for 100% of the playerbase), but making some (if not most) locks and traps totally impossible to manipulate, despite 100000 skill in lockpicking and trap disarming makes me sad.

And quests for rogues too. Maybe with burglary and lots of trap disarming. Yay!

Quests (both DM and regular) with a moral ambiguity. For example, say you're hired to take out a bandit camp, when you come down to the boss he explains how it's done to feed his family (except perhaps something more believable >_>).

Conundrum in Red Quests (both DM and regular) with a moral ambiguity. For example, say you're hired to take out a bandit camp, when you come down to the boss he explains how it's done to feed his family (except perhaps something more believable >_>).

We offer things like that all the time! Sadly, people don't pause when they've got TAB up, and it's red auras akimbo.

Along with that, I'd like the notable NPCs to be advancing their own agendas somewhat, and along with that - interacting with PCs positively or negatively as a result. They are people with their own dealios too.

This I agree with and is something we've always done. While we've been down I've been plotting as to how I can tweak with this to make it a tad more interesting, but we shall see!

Fewer un-pickable locks, and undisarmable traps! I'd like to see a few of the locks and traps with really high DCs to make them less attainable or difficult to disarm (possibly entirely out of reach for 100% of the playerbase), but making some (if not most) locks and traps totally impossible to manipulate, despite 100000 skill in lockpicking and trap disarming makes me sad.

I sort of felt this way when I played my rogue, but when I became a DM I was surprised to find that oddly enough behind just about every door in Upper/Lower Sanctuary and the Canal Ward (with the exception of the residential district) is occupied with something. Many require keys, some have high DCs and may not appear to be interesting, but by no means are they impossible. There are a couple doors I know aren't occupied which I think I'll fix, but as far as high DC locks go, I'm afraid they'll have to remain that way. Once broken though you might discover something really interesting, or something that doesn't appear to be at first.

I love when the DM's bring fighting to the gates or to the streets. Server-wide crisis/conflicts gives everyone a chance to get involved, and makes it easy for people to meet and RP. The only downside to them is server lag.

Yep that'd be my only thing. More chances to get multiple groups involved. I like big server events, a chance to get everyone involved, see server change and be part of something. :)

Agree with many of the previous speakers here. More long-term server-wide plots which include large server-wide events. Lizard War was a beauty, for example.

Suggest:

- Direct/Linear simple one-time quest that involves puzzles: Additional areas leading to a quest/or inside one: Always fun.

- Narration! - I love seeing that, although it usually only works if the party is moving at a slow pace.

- Arriving or stumbling on a discussion between Mounstrous NPCs, which leads to further actions i.e. leading to a cache of weaponry, secret entrance or a fight between the duo- or just something that race would naturally do. It adds to the ambiance.

- More stoning, I miss those. Could be a DM-directed one where we stone an npc with an 'unclear' sentence, so Citizens arent too sure if to stone or listen to what the NPCs has to say.

- More Intryzz. More Abberations, More thralls. Enslavement of PCs, giving them mission through thralldom is pretty straight forward and makes for a lot of fun.

As for larger scale plots:

- Areas/resources to compete over which have a gain for said- faction/Clergy/PC group: i.e. An Ore mine, source of food, Svirfneblin Cache that the various factions in town must capture each for their own reason, it leads to fun diplomacy. And the gain/reward should be clear so it motivates people to actually get it. If the rewards are clear for each factions/Clergy/PC group, it would motivate them better.

- Gathering item plot: i.e. you run a direct quest for each main faction (or smaller well-known groups) where at the end of the quest they receive a rune part or artefacts as well as a small guideline indicating there must be 5 rune stones gathered which would lead to a pocket plane containing something 'secret' a guardian, a monster- anyway something mysterious that looks powerful. Restriction would be to NOT put these items in persistant storage, and have the various group spy and compete over that information of who is carrying them which leads to assassination/mugging/negociation, etc.

- Fighting over stuff in arena with death as a penalty is pretty fun if the monsters are well-balanced and plenty of things to choose in advance to motivate people in participating over death-defying events.

Plots that are well-known, where there are direct gains to working toward it, and that involves a sort-of teaming or competition across the various groups for different reasons have a lot of potential I found.

What Mort's saying is what I meant by metaplots. Having factions compete makes the serverbase compete, and I think that's fun for everyone. So making plots that pit different groups against eachother will involve the most players and lead to the most fun.

- More Intryzz. More Abberations, More thralls. Enslavement of PCs, giving them mission through thralldom is pretty straight forward and makes for a lot of fun.

To continue on a similar note, I have gotten the feeling that - for a server based on the notion that the main town is made up of escaped slaves - slavery has in itself gotten very little attention lately except for 9lives' prelude. Haven't heard of many freedom raids or evil slaver races come to raid Sanctuary or anything like that. Could be an idea to up focus on this side of things.

What Mort's saying is what I meant by metaplots. Having factions compete makes the serverbase compete, and I think that's fun for everyone. So making plots that pit different groups against eachother will involve the most players and lead to the most fun.

Personally, I enjoy cooperative plots more than plots pitting player against player. You don't have to pit player faction against player faction in open conflict - cooperation plots work very well too, and I would like to see more of those instead. Conflict in Sanctuary is easy, and there's a lot of it. Cooperation, on the other hand, is a much more difficult nut to crack - not to mention that it appears very, very rare.

Cooperation gets boring. Believe me, I've been on servers where everyone cooperates, and it gets old fast. I think that hostility drives much more action than passiveness or even cooperation. It also puts a lot more strain on the DMs! If they have to play the enemy in every situation, there's very little player conflict.

But I agree about the slaves. More slavery conflicts would certainly be welcome, whether that be from a group of nearby slaving duergar or from Intryzz.

Terry does not enjoy the Priestess of Ilmater visiting the castle of the Banite lord to discuss how to turn back an invasion of undead monstrosities.

On a side note I think cooperation plots work well, I mean the Lizardfolk invasion was near exactly that "Sanctuary" united to turn them back and hunt them out.

The divisiveness of the Lizardfolk plot was what made it interesting, though. Gelleran was the most memorable part of that plot, for me at least, because he was so controversial and created hostility.

Yes, conflict is what drives EFU. Learn to love it!

As for the suggestions, they are good. Most of them, bar the puzzles and the NPC stonings are already currently being done as we speak. I like the puzzle idea!

And just as a reminder, you can app for starting off as an Intryzz thrall if you so wish! You even get spunky implants, and if you serve your master really well, more. Mmm.

I've nothing against would be conflict!

I'd care for more smaller one of things I guess, metaplots seem to be a stable most of the time and not really lacking, that's definitely not saying they aren't good. Whatever is fun. :?

Areas/resources to compete over which have a gain for said- faction/Clergy/PC group: i.e. An Ore mine, source of food, Svirfneblin Cache that the various factions in town must capture each for their own reason, it leads to fun diplomacy. And the gain/reward should be clear so it motivates people to actually get it. If the rewards are clear for each factions/Clergy/PC group, it would motivate them better.

This idea is amazing. I love it. It has some MASSIVE problems though. First, balance. It's hard to balance things! Risk and reward balancing is hard to measure. Also, this could lead to a lot of FD PvP unneccessarily just because it's simpler and gives the swiftest benefits; the classic problem of stubborn players going straight for the kill to "win", and not letting others live for the story (I'm as guilty as anyone, don't get me wrong!). But, if this could be done properly, this would be awesome.

Final note. This isn't unavailable to PCs currently, I know. But places being well understood as "resources" would be awesome. kkthxbye

<3 unique items with full, interesting descriptions. By unique I don't mean powerful, as is the unique items in Diablo, but unique as in different and original. While I was working on my mod, I made a mad druid with ridiculous armour that had way more bad properties than good, but it was truly 'unique'. I love items with a story to them, and when they connect to other things, such as a sad tale or a secret area, it makes it all the better.

Assassinations are so cool. Do you know awesome it is to hear about someone who broke into some wealthy noble's bedroom right before dawn with a dagger in hand or some poison to contaminate their drinking or bathing water? Or even better, to be the assassin with the dagger and poison. Hard to implement without DM assistance, though...

The Faction-war thingy sounds great too. I think it'd be great to see some Lower Faction trying to make some 'ultimate weapon' to obliterate the Spellguard Tower, yet they need some component to build the device.... Buuuuut the item to build the siege-weapon-thingy is in the Spellguard Tower. What a twist!

That's what I'd love to see.

Oh, and for the sever to be up again.

TaoB

I want more quests involving pie!

Since you're asking, here's my two cents.

$0.01 - Starting a new character is a regular feature of EfU, and the early quests get old, fast. This really kills the immersion for me, and it turns what should be an exciting and dangerous time in a character's career into tedious repetition. If I ever see the inside of the Zurkhwood Processing Plant again, it will be too soon.

Since it would be far too time-consuming to make dozens of low-level quests, I humbly request that the team make two or three randomized quests specially designed for recently escaped slaves, so that the process of starting a new character is a little bit different each time. Variety is the spice of life, and it is very, very easy to die in the Underdark.

$0.02 - EfU does a great job of maintaining a sense of mystery in the Dunwarren. There are comparatively few areas, but they are all rich with detail, and there always seems to be something new waiting just past the last thing that chased you out of there. The wilderness feels too small, as if the Dunwarren and the sewers have more to explore than the whole rest of the Underdark.

I'd like to request an earthquake, with a few new wilderness areas opened up. Perhaps a short-range portal or two, along with some really nasty stuff on the other side.

Pick pocket for those who have proved themselves good rpers and responsible enough not to pick pocket wanton and do it over and over again. It is always fun to be a theif on the run from a group who caught him stealing.

I'd rather have reverse pickpocket -- the ability to plant an item in someone's inventory. :twisted:

More Dm plots wuld be nice

The most fun i have had on the server was around the big plots which changed whole atmosphere of the server e.g. lizard war, moander plague.

For me it keeps immersion at 100%, which is great.

A Pirate DM Faction.

I believe it could provide room for some pretty interesting PCs and plots, not to mention it should affect the playerbase as a whole.

If this is anything that even slightly interests any of the DMs, I should be available on IRC for some further chat on the subject.

Besides, who doesn't love pirates?

Believe me, I've been on servers where everyone cooperates, and it gets old fast.

The opposite can get old pretty fast too. It would be nice to see some exceptions to the constant-bickering-rule.

PlayerCharacter I'd rather have reverse pickpocket -- the ability to plant an item in someone's inventory. :twisted:

There are some very good suggestions here. Sadly, we often face a lot of restrictions that aren't so readily apparent to the playerbase.

Our time being the main and most obvious one. Our ultimate resource, and it is often in tight supply.

The next being server space. In order to maintain the server's efficiency, we try to keep size at a minimum. And, thus, can't afford to throw in a lot of the areas that we'd like to.

I wanna know what Etorix is going to do! Where'd he go anyway? It's like, he became "Master Protector of Sanctuary" and that was the last thing we heard of him or the Shadow Tribe.

There is a city, with some interesting quests, that I believe few have visited. I am not sure it is a *spoiler* to mention it, but you can pray to Set there, and Necromancy is not so frowned upon. It is a bit costly to get there, by boat, but easy enough. It seems that the populous there would have a keen interest in a city full of possible victims and such. Perhaps this would fall under the slave raid bit. Some sort of contact via a slave raid, or visit from one of the inhabitants of said city, would seem to increase the conflict/tension another notch in our xenophobic little town.

I'd like to see some improvements on the way inter-faction conflict is handled.

I enjoyed watching Sanctuary fracture after the death of Bhast, but then it seemed as if nothing really moved forward. I know the group my character was with really had no clue, what, why, or how to react. There was no indication of HOW to handle things, and many things we did try to do--sadly, no DMs had time to handle, so perhaps help give ways to accomplish faction goals without a DM.

There also feels like a dearth of NPCs guiding things. I appreciate a desire to make most conflict PC vs PC, but all the same it often feels like the NPCs are just not reacting to events as they could or should. Etorix has disappeared, and that made little sense. Admittedly, Sheriff Azzam seems to be pursuing an agenda, but I had to say for all the fact the Spellguard broke away from Sanctuary-it didn't seem like Commander Simms was in touch at all. If that was on purpose, give us a clue that it was by having NPC Agents complain they're not getting guidance. If it was a case of DMs not having enough time, its understandable of course, but I felt more it was a case of hoping PCs would push everything through somehow.

I could be wrong, but communication always helps. More of it, please.

Oroborous: This is something we've always worked at, and I wager the lack of it lately is probably due to lack of time on our part. It's summer in the US, so most of us are out doing summertime things!

Gnak: There are mechanical reasons why we haven't implemented pick-pocket, but I've heard that DMs have allowed people to pick-pocket or reverse pick-pocket in the past, but with good reason! (Not just a normal thuggery, something extraordinary!)

Areas/resources to compete over which have a gain for said- faction/Clergy/PC group: i.e. An Ore mine, source of food, Svirfneblin Cache that the various factions in town must capture each for their own reason, it leads to fun diplomacy. And the gain/reward should be clear so it motivates people to actually get it. If the rewards are clear for each factions/Clergy/PC group, it would motivate them better.

We usually have factions compete over items, and will probably continue to do so. A good reminder though- this is something I'll mind in my next plot!

Anyways I like most of what I've read so far. Lots of which are reminders to things I've thought or heard of before, so a thanks in advance to those who've contributed.

Herb kits like in CoA. Damn, those were awesome. If there's one thing I won't forget about CoA it's their herb kits. Would it be too imbalanced if you could heal more severe wounds with herbs in a timely fashion? I think it would be a nice addition, allowing for all sorts of physician characters. More Rogtakh, please.

Option to permakill a dead character in the fugue & autodelete him from the server. Less strain for DMs with delete requests, just script it. Can't be so hard, that CoA thing had it!

Only part i'd disagree with is the whole

It's summer in the US, so most of us are out doing summertime things!

When it's Sept you guys will be complaining about school and work starting back up, and when it's late winter you'll complain about finals or family stuff. There is always something non nwny that takes up time, summer is no excuse.

Other then that at this stage I'd be just be happy to see the server up again honestly.

PlayerCharacter I'd rather have reverse pickpocket -- the ability to plant an item in someone's inventory. :twisted:

I like this idea....could be used to plant evidence on someone to frame them for a crime or something!

Maybe the item doesn't show up until they are wanded by a Watchman or Spellguard and are placed in a jail cell.

New areas to start from, say you start in the blue mushroom because you were an escaped slave taking refuge in the blue mushroom and you have to make that last adventurous go through the mines.

MOre <3 for the small things players want, like a pranking the NPC's, or throwing pies at people! I've seen dm's paying to much attention to big plots instead of the small things players want to make the atmosphere more liveable! halfling followers of Brandobaris need fun to!

I WANT HOWLAND BACK!

I'd like to see more of those server-sided 'item-gathering' events. (IE: Knucklebones, Godstones, Earthwheels.) Those things really made it very interesting and I suppose on top of that, even more worthwhile to spent more time in EfU. If such could pop by more, on a larger scale involving not only a small hand full of people who get to hear about it - hopdeedeedoo. Awesome.

Jasede Option to permakill a dead character in the fugue & autodelete him from the server. Less strain for DMs with delete requests, just script it. Can't be so hard, that CoA thing had it!

It's rather hard to script a flawless perma dead script, apparently, as I've been told before. But I agree, I've seen several throughout NwN which, if this is something the DMs too would like to see happen, I'm more than willing to get one of our scripters in contact with those who managed to script a flawless perma script.

I believe there are reasons for not allowing a player to kill off his characters and that they were explained somewhere on these forums not long ago.

shatteredshadows Only part i'd disagree with is the whole

It's summer in the US, so most of us are out doing summertime things!

When it's Sept you guys will be complaining about school and work starting back up, and when it's late winter you'll complain about finals or family stuff. There is always something non nwny that takes up time, summer is no excuse.

Many of us are indeed out for summer, so this is the excuse I'm giving because this is why many of us are inactive. Some of us may continue to be inactive when school starts up, while others not so much.

Bear in mind, we play this game leisurely just as everyone else does. Yet we work hard at it and offer all of it at a very high-quality for free.

Jasede Option to permakill a dead character in the fugue & autodelete him from the server. Less strain for DMs with delete requests, just script it. Can't be so hard, that CoA thing had it!

While I'm not 100% sure on this, I think the main reason we can not do this is because unlike most (if all? >_>) NWN PWs, we have some sort of unique database system that allows voice commands and the like which interferes with all of that.

It's not much of a hassle to delete people from the vault manually though, so no worries!

(Sounds like people want some sort of metaplot... *jots*)

(Sounds like people want some sort of metaplot... *jots*)

This may have been a joke referring to the auto-deleter, but I am a simple man who cannot translate type into humor easily. If that is the case, I say, "Meh".

Metaplots are good because they give the entire server something to work towards (or against, like the Tobias Breen and the giant spider plot!). In fact, let's look at that example, and lay out the details that made it awesome and potentially the best overall storyline/metaplot thus far, in my opinion.

One. It was, at it's heart, the final step in a large player plot; that being, to raise a giant spider and an army of spiders for some sort of druidic reason that most of us never truly understood.

Two. Everyone on the server was affected and involved depending on their initiative.

Two point one. There was a small group of players that had been directly overseeing this plot, dealing with the mad doctor and his entourage, and in the end were rewarded with the unbelievable venture deep into enemy territory after a hundred meetings and letters to build and subsequently carry out a plan that worked perfectly up to the bitter end that was so cunning that even the player of Tobias Breen was astounded at the outcome. Team Spellguard, baby!

Two point two. Back home, the spider army invaded, giving the PCs that had not been involved in the plotting a fantastic opportunity to be directly involved.

That being said, metaplots have their shortcomings too. They take a LOT of time and a lot of dedication and organization to make it memorable, heck, just to make it happen at all. On the other hand, a single DM and a handful of players can make a one-night deal extremely memorable by just taking a step out there.

One prime example is the endeavor into Dunwarren last February, run by Beggar methinks. It started as a server-wide hook, but after a few attempts at gaining entrance to Dunwarren, most people lost interest. An hour later, a team of dwarves ("For Djupreheim!") and a second team of Watchmen entered the ruins and stumbled across a small group of Chosen. After getting their asses kicked, a deal was brokered with the Chosen so we could return our dead back to life and suddenly everyone found themselves working for the rats! I would go into the details that made the adventure great, but they are pretty unique and most assuredly spoilerific, so you just have to take my word for it that it was a very interesting, very difficult, and very rewarding little adventure.

Which one is best? If the first can be done, then let it be done. But it comes with a steep price of time. The second takes a bit of planning, a dash of luck, and a handful of eager players. Oh, and Ph@7 L3\/\/7!!1!

More PC romances and weddings. I feel that if the love exists in-game, then it will translate out-of-game, and everyone will be happy. After all, didn't someone say that love make the world go round? Why can't it make EfU go round, as well?

-SaRF

Nothing to worry about Garem. I've taken note of the interest people have in it and while it's my preference to keep things on a personal level I'll see if I can come up with some sort of metaplot to involve most of the factions and the like for when we're back online.

I love you SaRF.

Remember when Ladocicea ran that plot with the people with special abilities and it was all secret and hush-hush?

<----

I remember that...

I'd also like to see a relaunch. NWN2 appears to be a flop, and people are looking for a good RP experience. When the server comes back up, let's announce it in a few forums and see if we can't get a few new players involved.

I’d like to see more established quests either be updated like the Hoaran Temple one was and also, more established quests be finally dealt with/completed like the Gnome undead hordes at the Staircase was. Doing the same old quests without DM spice gets a bit stale. Having new elements introduced to existing quests like new areas, new monster spawns & different outcomes would “freshen” them up to some extent. I’d also like to see more hidden areas in quests that people can discover. In addition, as mentioned earlier by Thomas and Mad Caddies, more puzzles and maybe some code breaking. I know this will require scripting and some work but I believe it’ll make for more enjoyment for the player base.

In regards to the Permadeath thing, what I think could be done is when a character dies and ends up in fugue, give them a choice to “move on” to their final rest. In other words, they can choose to end their character but still will have their “get out of fugue option” if the player decided that they don’t want to “die” just yet. If a player takes that option, they should still have the option to respawn but at a much harsher penalty for experience. This will make people think really hard about deletion. Any PC left in that “vault” and has not respawned after 30 days from this area should be deemed to have moved on to their final rest and be deleted from the server. I think 30 days is plenty of time for people to rethink the decision to end their character. It would also clear out a lot of characters that no one plays anymore who are dead without having to pester DM’s to clean up their vault. I’m not sure how this can be scripted but I believe it’s worth considering if it can be done. If it can’t be done via an automatic script, then maybe every 30 days a DM simply just deletes any character stored in that area. Again, it will make people think a little harder about permadeath.

I want to see less playerfactions and more player-interest in established DM factions. :/ Come on, applications aren't that difficult, and there's plenty of help available. Whether it's about conflict or cooperation (and I'm inclined to agree with Terry on this), inter-faction relationships are difficult to establish/maintain with only one or two regular players in each faction.

On the scripted deletion thing, there have been many good and bad suggestions for how to go about it now. The better one is simply to forget about it and PM a DM. It's such a minor thing anyway.

... and I want the Hoarite temple to be properly named "Hoarite." <.<

Animate Dead Player Character Corpse 4 Uber Zombies.

I agree with Snoteye.

Metaplots are indeed excellent, but are tragically very time consuming. I'm hoping to start mine up when I get things set up at my new place-as I agree we could use some more.

Snoteye I want to see less playerfactions and more player-interest in established DM factions. :/ Come on, applications aren't that difficult, and there's plenty of help available.

Seconded.

Tribe of the Blade: Dead Cave Worm Clan: Floundering Seekers and Society, for some time, had spent a good few weeks or even months with no more than one or two players.

Remember, you can apply for DM factions well after you have already created your character.

Snoteye I want to see less playerfactions and more player-interest in established DM factions. :/ Come on, applications aren't that difficult, and there's plenty of help available.

Yes!

Snoteye, I do concur.

To add to Snoteye and Secutor's sentiments, I must say that I'm sometimes baffled when people start factions that're increadably similar to the regular established ones. More love for the Seekers and Society!

-DD

The Tribe of The Blade has travelled off into the Underdark, with the haste in which they arrived.

A way to escape that doesn't require DMs.

Just find the key(s), find the door(s), and then 2 words: "I'm gone"

Maybe some minor changes on quests like trap placements, so people won't always know where they are.

erglion A way to escape that doesn't require DMs.

Just find the key(s), find the door(s), and then 2 words: "I'm gone"

Not to rain on any of your hopes and dreams, but "the escape" is too much of an important even and is too integrated into the core of EfU for there to be a scripted solution that everybody knows about five minutes after it goes in. Besides, we look forward to watching the great characters who've come long ways try their hands at one or more of the paths to freedoms -- why would we abandon that?

I'd disagree on the note of

I want to see less playerfactions

Fact is most Dm factions are just that DM factions, for anything to happen relevant for that faction it's the dm waiting game. Fact is player factions are easier to contact, more interesting, and usually far more active. Even when I have seen ranks of factions swell they are usually not nearly as active as player factions or as enjoyable to interact with, and I like many others get tired of the wait for the DM for something to happen.

As far as limited members go while that is true of some factions I'd hardly say that the Baneites which I always see 4-5 of walkin about are a limited player base. I think you are just forgetting timezones and playerbase, even on a active nite of 25 people your not going to get 15 watch and 10 spellguard I think you need to be realistic.

As far as meta plots I don't mind them, I enjoy personal quests IF they are personal and the dms take time to have it have something to do with the pcs. If it has some actual impact on the pcs i'm for it. The old fashioned "What is it lassie? Timmy's in the well?" and let's follow the leader gets old fast.

Just my thoughts

A way to escape that doesn't require DMs.

Just find the key(s), find the door(s), and then 2 words: "I'm gone"

A purely scripted way to escape (beat the module) shouldn't happen, but allow me to take a moment to clarify that escaping is not something that's simply made available to favored DM PCs - any PC has the opportunity to escape, and although at certain parts a DM is required to handle the mechanics it's something that any character can pursue.

Fact is most Dm factions are just that DM factions, for anything to happen relevant for that faction it's the dm waiting game. Fact is player factions are easier to contact, more interesting, and usually far more active. Even when I have seen ranks of factions swell they are usually not nearly as active as player factions or as enjoyable to interact with, and I like many others get tired of the wait for the DM for something to happen.

I'd encourage you to actually try joining an EfU DM Faction before deciding this. Although I do see your point, every faction was designed to be player-driven and to be fun without the requirement of a DM. In fact, the absolute most important part of the application is the part in which the player explains about what sort of things their character will do (independently of DMs) that will be interesting. It's certainly a problem when a player joins a faction and decides they'll just wait around for DM guidance, but that's definitely not wanted and the appllication process is designed to make that happen as little as possible.

The point of putting PCs in DM factions is so those PCs can represent the faction instead of possessed NPCs; unfortunately, most characters want to skip the PCs and go straight to the Sheriff/Senior Officer/NPC councilor; but some joe on the street isn't going to get a hold of the Chicago Police Department Super-intendent (or shouldn't really expect a timely response from him, or even his staff). The more PCs that are in player factions, the fewer PCs are available to take initiative in DM factions, and the more necessary it becomes to contact an NPC.

While some player factions have shaken the Underdark, others seem like a group for the sake of a group. I think I'd much rather see PCs establish "gangs" more than factions. Those hooligans down the street that are always up to no good, usually with the creepy silent one pulling the strings. Or the wacky folks that all hang out in the 'Stand some nights, and get drunk and beat up gnolls every Saturday. They might adopt a name, in time, or someone might label them, but they certainly don't need to recruit. They're also free to join DM factions (either together, or into opposing factions) without their (often advertised) faction membership coloring their application.

Another thing I want to see:

Drow/Illithid/Beholders/Duergar randomly assaulting PC parties who are out in the Underdark and try to capture them. Eventually succeed which may lead to other adventures. Also give some edge to the whole proximity to those settlements. ATM, they just seem like lame ducks.

More danger everywhere. I have been playing a zombie survival server for the past almost two weeks and it is hard to -live- there and I'd like to see a bit more difficulty in living outside of the city seeing as it is the Underdark

Edit: Damnit I am slow

What I would like to see more of is small events happening. Not neccessarily serverchanging events, but happenings that adds flavor to the surroundings, such as a possessed NPC asking for help from a few 'adventurers'. Things that may seem minor in the big picture, but allows players to really show and use their character's abilities through dialog, situation handling and planning, which may lead to some memorable moments.

Okay, I have to admit that my previous statement was a loaded comment.

In about 11 months on the server it was never made clear to me that any DM supervision was necessary to escape. (Of course I had a sneaking suspicion.) I've been out in the nether-reaches of the server with small groups of people trying to escape with no reason to believe that we needed a DM to help us out. Other players I know were under the same impression.

So maybe what I suggest is a clarification of what it takes to escape (ie. a pre-planned DM quest, a little DM help when out deep in the Underdark, an application...) I've had little to no success ever of sending the DMs tells during the game for possessions.

Getting to a point where you think you might be able to escape IG is hard enough. It would be nice to have a clear protocol for what to do to organize things with the DMs at that point.

I would like to see the Red Skull cult do crazy public ceremonies that scare and attract different sorts of people. Within the building, have dialog showing recruited commoners going through different stages of brainwashing thinly veiled as "reaching enlightenment."

The Red Skulls are altruistic.

MadCaddies The Red Skulls are altruistic.

I knew they were crazy. <_<

Recruited commoners going through different stages of brainwashing thinly veiled as "reaching enlightenment."

Fits perfectly >_>

A95 Maybe some minor changes on quests like trap placements, so people won't always know where they are.

Ask and you shall receive.

Edit:

I'd like to see the DM factions flourishing. I'd like to see more conflict between the established DM factions-and I'd like to see more emo-society paladins with greatswords.

Mmgh.