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Would be neat if the Aberdenn Distillery was a quest covered in Caermyn graffiti, and you fought through hordes of whiskey blobs and eventually battle a big boss with a pulse ability that gets you addicted to booze.

"Ach! Me Poor Mudder!" the dwarf wailed in the bar. "She's dead! Ayeeee. Dead, as a doornail, de ye hear!" He sobbed into his cup.

"I'm so sorry to hear that," said the innkeep, pouring him a lager on the house. "What happened?"

"She went tae the Aberdenn Distillery. Some mage was trying tae summon water elementals, but there be not'in fer them tae gets their bodies from but prime aged whiskey en the barrels, so tha's wha' they be. She doied tryin' tae foight em all."

"Oh, that does sound tragic."

The dwarf nodded. "Et be a long painful death tae. She had tae get out three toimes tae whee, afore they foinally did 'er in."

Perspective of a non-EFUer

I stopped playing EFU a little more than a month ago. This was for a number of reasons, but to summarize, I just found the ratio of fun to grind too low for me to spend the miniscule amount of game I have available on this server. However, I freely admit that the death system (and the ever-grind of building back from the last death) was the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back".

That said, please understand that this is just a personal preference. EFU does so many things right, that it does not seem reasonable for me to whine too hard. Different people have different feelings on what is "fun" and what is "grind" after all, so just because this didn't work out for me, doesn't mean that others aren't having a great time. And the EFU team absolutely deserves all the accolades it receives for maintaining such a compelling world, especially considering how many other servers have effectively died for wont of players.

So let me put in suggestions for a few tweaks, they are all tuned towards my idea of "fun" which is "self-consistency/realism inside the game world, so that it remains as immersive as possible". Let me also mention that almost everything I mention here has been done on one server or another - this is kind of a "best practices" summary.

((Yes - I'm well aware that this is mostly Off Topic.  So sue me.))


AI changes - Monster AI is problematic, in that many hostiles will target someone who is bleeding on the floor rather than a different PC who is trying to take off their head. This is one of the primary causes of DeathPlane-ing on EFU, so quite a cause of frustration. But it's also completely unrealistic.  AIs should lose interest in killing any fallen PCs at least until all PCs who threaten them are put down.

Also unrealistic are living creatures attacking and fighting to the death even when severely injured. I know this is a computer-RPG trope, but it still doesn't make sense. Undead, by contrast, should be extra scary because they simply don't stop pursuit even when they're falling to pieces.

If this warrants raising the HP on certain monsters to compensate, so be it.

Bottom line: If "death is horrendous", then have the NPC AI respect at least somewhat as well.


Area Changes - Some areas are set up so that hostiles are right next to the transition. I remember one game in which Gurdal (my PC) entered last behind a full party of people who were higher level, and transitioned directly onto the death plane (my PC is old and slow - loading takes a while). Setting up areas like this to add difficulty is not realistic and not fun for the players.

Also, consider changing the standard quests on a routine basis, so there is less of a newbie-to-EFU-penalty. Many old-hand EFU players start off new PCs, but because they know exactly where everything is, every quest, every danger, every treasure, they're suddenly level 8 before you know it. (Either that, or provide some in-world explanation for the effect, like "knowledge of the mist" or something.)

Also, try to widen out corridors so as to keep the dreaded NWN "bump" effect - pushing backliners suddenly up into the front, sometimes 10 to 20 game meters ahead depending on the crowding.


Economics Changes - As your primary gold-sink, consider having trainers who "sell" of XP (time limited, certain trainers train only for certain classes, more gold for XP at higher levels). This allows you to let Merchants start buying goods for which there clearly is a market. (The whole "charity chest because I can't sell anything" thing seems completely OOC to me, especially for borderline evil PCs.)

This also allows Resting to not be an unrealistic gold-sink. Resting should not be a function of whether a PC builds a fire which costs an unrealistic amount of gold, but whether they feel safe. To establish safety, PCs should be able to "guard" each other via a special tool or function, allowing the guarded PC to rest. This encourages groups. Nature-based PCs should also "be safe" in normal wilderness.

Let PCs build campfires, but make their special function to be a trashcan, rather than a resting mechanism.


Injury System - Consider use a CON/HP based negative value, rather than a straight -10, and slow bleeding down. Basically, no one should bleed out instantly. If real life was like the current system, hospital ERs would have little to do - everyone would be dead by the time they arrived.

Potentially as a slight gift to players, make it so that excess damage from a blow below zero gets divided by three. Example: a wounded fighter has 10 HP left, and is hit for 20 pts of damage.  The first 11 points drop him to -1, but the remaining 9 get divided by three for an additional (9/3=3), setting him to -4.  Not insta-dead.

Don't strip unconscious players of their equipment, armor, and bags.  Not until they're completely dead.

Unconscious players should be immune to mind spells. Also, as a gift, make them immune to Evards.

As a balance, consider adding a temporary -1 to all characteristics "severe blood-loss" 'curse' to PCs who fell, since even magical healing can't put the blood on the floor back into a PC's body.  This should go away after some real world time, maybe sped along by food.


Add a "Delete My PC" mechanism into the death plane.


I could add more, but it would get even more off-topic, so I'll leave it as is.

Ranged weapons with the Mighty property

Bows with a stronger pull (i.e. the Mighty property allowing a PC to use a portion of their STR bonus) are extremely rare in EFU. You cannot simply purchase one at a shop, even a bow with a lowly Mighty +1.

Darts and Throwing axes are unchanged, but seem to be essentially not for sale anywhere, even at the dwarf merchant in the Delving.

Quarterstaves

The quarterstaff has been changed in EFU to be a double-sided weapon capable of making a "light off-hand" attack. As its weapon proficiencies have not changed, this makes it the most accessible double-sided weapon in the game. All other double-sided weapons require Exotic Weapon proficiency, as is normal in base NwN.

Note that for base quarterstaves, the Dual Wield and Ambidexterity feats are required to avoid prohibitive attack penalties. However, there are superior Quarterstaves in EFU which have both Duel Wield and Ambidexterity as free weapon feats.

Campfires

Campfires are not made of tinder, started by flint and  steel, but instead made with oil. Oil can be purchased from various  merchants. To start a fire, use the oil and target the ground.

Campfires can be used to rest. Any number of PCs may rest at a campfire,  not just the one who started the fire. However, just because you make a campfire, does not mean that rest is possible at it. Notably, a campfire  started on the Mistlocke map, even in portions that seem naturalistic and private, will  not allow you to rest. The PC also needs a Sleeping roll in their  inventory for rest to take place.

Campfires do not last very long. Wizard players should not make a campfire and then start selecting spells; it may run out before you are done.

Funny enough, as a completely new player to EFU, I listened quite closely to the warnings, and didn't go outside at all, even though it was daylight out.

Also, at the very beginning, it isn't clear at all how much time you have before the curse takes hold. Normal AD&D curses are very quick to kill, so as soon as I got the "you are cursed" message, I high-tailed it immediately into the mists, thinking this was a courtesy "you're about to die" warning.

You'll have to explain to me how to do all of that, PD.  That all looks like EFU special scripting code that I'm not familiar with.

Thanks for the help though.  :D

My cleric Gurdal Darkforge continues to acquire holy symbols in his inventory. It's up to three now.  He seems to get them on server resets, but not always; I haven't identified exactly what triggers it.

He did get some prayers for one of the symbols, but I can't tell which, so I'm reluctant to just trash them.  He's wearing a random one now.

Perhaps this is a case where you are adding a holy symbol for a cleric only if he doesn't have one?  Maybe the "doesn't have one" part of the code is not always matching correctly.

I see its possible for PCs to cast spells with a verbal component underwater.  Underwater regions should have a silence effect so this can't happen.

Perhaps this is as it is intended. Just in case though, I'm filing it as a bug.

This is a placeholder for all small miscellaneous topics not currently documented.

This isn't a game suggestion. It's a website suggestion: please update it when you have the time.

There are things, like perks, that are in he new player guides and website topics that aren't true anymore.  There are also other things that are server-special differences from NwN, that aren't documented either (at least not in the new player guide - it might be buried somewhere).

Just a few examples of things I've run across:

Quarterstaff is now considered a double-ended weapon, unlike vanilla NwN.

Tumble is changed in mysterious ways - but it looks like the changes are intended to hurt  melee classes compared to monks/fighting-mages (not sure that was actually needed, but regardless, it needs to be documented)

The Bard class, and Bard song, have been changed in ways that you don't know at character creation time, which is different than the way every other class's base abilities are known.

I'd like some basic explanation on how you use Specialty Slots as well.  For example, the summon control functionality.

And basically all other OOC mechanics for any EFU special object that it seems reasonable would present no in-character problem to understand should documented: Map pins, writing, How to change your summon scheme (and change it back), whatever else is out there.

Also, basic world information might be nice. Like the fact that Plate armor is nearly impossible to craft, and so is not for sale for just any price at any merchant.

- - - - -
Please note that I'm not asking for truly secret stuff to be documented.  Where you might find a book that changes your summon type, for instance, should still be secret. But what buttons to use to properly activate it if your PC finds one should not.

Okay, this is a complete whine, and I know it. Please forgive me in advance, but I do need to get this off my chest.  

Letting an invading army (much less moderately sized raiding party) to just waltz into a city and slaughter everyone in the market, is a major failure of Medieval 101.

The whole point of having castles and fortified cities - big stone walls, high parapets, built on hills, chasms, on an ocean isle, and other picturesque (though often terribly inconvenient to live in) settings - was not to be some Disneyesque setting for a pretty Americanized princess movie, but to keep enemy armies out. Among other things, that meant that the city walls had gates, portcullises, and even drawbridges.  Furthermore, their walls went all the way around, not halfway and petering out, as it does in Mistlocke.

Medieval walled cities also didn't have open back doors by which an enemy could stage a surprise attack, like the Old Stones door.

I mean, this is about the only thing that bugs me in this otherwise fantastic setting. (I mean I can easily see why EFU has kept its player base while other servers have... ahem... withered.)  But there should be an explanation for the way the Mistlocke map is set up, especially if it is going to remain that way.

Let's explain this.

The reason why you see no bards in EFU was clear to me about the second time I played. Bards, unlike every other class, have a huge dependency on having specific skill-add equipment available. But there basically are none in EFU.  I have seen a single pair of gloves adding a +1 Perform, and that's it.

This is what it means to the thresholds in a Bard's "Bard Song" which is only real perk you get in this class.

Level      Perform Boost-Needed
   1......                    3.......                0
   2......              6.......              +1
   3......              9.......              +3
   6......            12......             +3
   8......            15......             +4
  11.....           18......              +4
  14.....            21......             +4

As you can see, without equipment, you need to be many levels higher just to hit the thresholds. No one is going to play under that kind of circumstance. The class is underderpowered as it is without the lack of equipment hampering it even further.

The solution is simple. Add a Luthier who sells musical instruments (fashion accessories) with decent Perform bonuses. Maybe Janice Tarth the Carpenter can expand his business slightly.

[This should stack with darkfire.]

From the documentation:

http://www.escapefromundeath.com/documentation/mechanics/cleric-domains

Metal Domain Spells: shelgarn's persistent blade (1), darkfire (2), keen  edge (5) Abilities: 1/day, add temporary fire damage to your weapon for  one round/level: +1 Fire damage for non-hammer weapons, and +1d4 Fire  damage for hammers. This should stack with darkfire. [emphasis added]


I've tested this out with my dwarf cleric.  It doesn't.

I admit this isn't a huge deal: the buff only lasts for a handful of rounds. So maybe you should just change the documentation to what the code does.  Either way.  It just should be consistent.