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Nice anon post

The fact that this post is anon speaks more about the server than it does about the person who made the post.

Hum, to offer a contrasting opinion, I find #EFU enjoyable most of the time. I enjoy the debates, the bants, the anecdotes, and generally talking to people outside the game medium.

In fact I have to actively restrict myself from not logging onto #EFU at work, or else productivity goes to the dumpster with Ed Greenwood.

#EFU, for me, is part of the fun.

It's easy for you to say that. Correct me if I'm wrong but you seem to be relatively universally liked and part of the #efu clique. I've seen people be absurdly nasty in really off the cuff ways. I think the idea of a thick skin implies that there is something worthwhile to be gained from endurance. There is criticism and anecdotes and spirited debates. This is more often than not overwhelmed by unadulterated hatred, elitism, etc. It doesn't bother me enough to seek any form of restitution (i'm an adult, I'm not going to tattle on someone because they were mean to me, I have better things to do, etc), but I see it... around half of the times I've logged into IRC, and it universally comes from the core group of clique members and a select few DMs. I witnessed one DM in particular jump down someone's throat and spew such ridiculous venom over something so utterly trivial, saying things I feel I could only say at my absolute peak of anger, and it came out of nowhere, 0-100. I actually found myself amazed at how quickly someone could stoop so low, and it's not banter. Banter is cheeky and fun. Blatantly insulting someone isn't banter, it's just hateful and tedious and childish.

I don't know why I'm writing this because there is really nothing to be done. I guess it feels good to get it off my chest. It is what it is, and it is far too ingrained within the culture of this server. I remember when I first rolled a druid and I took a screenshot of some druid content cause I was really impressed with everything that went into it and I wanted to give props so I went to EFU and posted my screenshot and started to talk about it and I was literally met with "congratulations, you hit level 8 and then went and stood in a spot for 15 minutes. Do you expect anyone to give a shit?" This was a from a prominent player. Like I'm not even allowed to express my admiration for the server without it turning into an argument about whether or not someone should care that I found something I'm impressed with, and I think that the dialogue there is really telling as to the culture of the IRC, because their perception was that I was tooting my own horn, just because I was like "wow this druid content is cool". This server is very OOCly cutthroat sometimes. Everything is about epeen. I feel like some of you have the vast majority of your confidence riding on how well your character does in this ----game---. I don't mean that to sound hurtful or petty, that's just the only justification I have for this.

I've been called all sorts of names. I suppose I can be an instigator or difficult to interact with here and there, but some of these insults are very schoolyard to me (retard, etc). This is simply the culture of #efu. It stems from 4chan and meme culture with a healthy dash of gosu epeen moba hardcore pvper mentality. It reminds me of counterstrike sometimes, the way some of you behave. I don't think this thread will really accomplish anything in terms of fixing that. The unfortunate thing is how often it bleeds into the game itself. Some of you are just insufferably bitter, and I don't even get angry because it's actually quite saddening and embarrassing to witness. This is still the best server that has ever existed in NWN, and a lot of that is because of the community. There are some really awesome people here.

That being said it's really difficult for me to have any characters that have any longevity because I am simply not here for the drama, so when I start getting drama, I stop playing the character, make a new account, etc. I've made concepts that I've really believed in and loved and was super inspired with the character and I've spent a lot of time in certain cases fleshing out backstories, only to lose interest in logging in once things get interesting.

One player relentlessly argued with me for at least 30 minutes (despite my consistently trying to end the argument) because my high int mage that had run into 3 RSDs in the past few days tested a cantrip on one of our party members before casting real buffs, which seems a perfectly innocent thing to do, but of course it devolves into a 30 minute rant about how I'm OOC and metagaming and incorporating OOC mechanic knowledge into my character (a character this player knew NOTHING ABOUT, this was our very first interaction), just because my CHARACTER witnessed his spells failing to work on other characters on several occasions. What am I supposed to do? Drop my wisdom to 6 and act surprised when my buffs don't work?

I feel like almost every single time I win or escape in PVP I'm immediately met with a slew of angry accusations about how I broke this rule or that rule, and this always leads to a 30 minute discussion where I have to go on IRC, find a DM, ask a veteran player if I broke a rule, and it almost always turns out that (I think there was one instance where I moved after being subdued because I thought PVP was over but it turned out it wasn't) I didn't do anything wrong and it's just another bitter manchild who's mad because they lost. It feels really difficult to have a character of any longevity if you aren't interested in dealing with OOC politics and having to justify every single move your character makes to players who roleplay their characters in borderline OOC ways, powerlevel like crazy, etc. It sucks because I love PVP and I love low level, hardcore environments and I think every aspect of this server is the best of the best that NWN has to offer. And I want to get involved and have a lengthy, memorable character and I always try to make one that is going to last but the drama is just too tiresome. I don't have the time or the energy. I feel like I have to run OBS everytime I PVP

I'm sorry if this seems overly negative. This is really the best server NWN has ever had. I'm not a baby. I grew up on the internet also. I just don't have the energy for any of this nonsense.

Also, another important point is to understand the weaknesses of each archetype. This can get somewhat metagamey but pvp in general is metagamey. Pvp is really a game of chance (as if everything in this game), so proper tactics means you pick the solution that offers the greatest chance of success based on the weaknesses of the enemy. Knowing what kind of saves someone is likely to have is important, even as a fighter. I'm going to try to express this from the perspective of a two-hander flanking fighter human (I'm assuming your character is a human).

Outside of buffs and proper preparation and mechanical minutiae, it is important to understand the actual role of your character in a fight. The perfect enemy for your build to fight is a low discipline, low strength character that is a smaller size than you (when resisting a knockdown attempt, a character gets a +4 bonus per size category for being larger than the attacker, and a -4 per size category for being smaller than the attacker), i.e flanking rogues, mages, support oriented casters, archers, etc. If you are engaged in a fight and you haste KD out of invis on a halfling rogue / mage you will probably kill them or come very close to killing them before they can stand up again unless they severely outlevel and the mage is fully buffed.

Yes, a fully buffed cleric/bard that you don't dispel or a tank rogue, monk, sword and board fighter, etc will more than likely beat you toe to toe. You pretty much have to play the same way that a rogue would play, using invisibility instead of stealth and haste with the element of surprise. Two handers won't compete in a 1v1 situation with some of these builds simply because of AC, and that's fine. It's all about strength and weaknesses and planning.

we're about to see a bunch of gore reavers

I found your corpse >_>

I think it would be cooler if they had added perks that added nuance to their character outside of favored enemy. That being said, there's really no synergy between alot of these... Gnomes and Animals. It would make more sense if they were categorized differently, like if you got a bonus if you had favored enemy vs Dragon and Reptillian... The unknown and the exotic make more sense, but the mundane is just kind of what is left over. Orcs have nothing to do with Vermin, so it doesn't make IC sense for the character to get a bonus because he happens to have an affinity for hunting Orcs and vermin. I do agree that it would be cool for rangers to get something at level 8 as a bonus for remaining pure.

A big part of the reason I'm not very active on EfU is because of the PvP and people's reactions to it occurring, and their reactions to being subdued. I love PvP, despite being mediocre at best, but several members of the community have responded with utter vitriol and contempt upon losing (or even upon me successfully escaping a gank), to the point that I am struggling to bring myself to log in.

Am I the only one who enjoys when people get mad for losing a pvp fight? I don't antagonize them or start OOC fights because I'm an adult playing a video game, I tend to just apologize or diffuse the situation or say nothing, but i never feel negatively when I receive OOC rage due to pvp.

character of nuhnuh here

this was such an unfortunate event. I really wanted point to die in the blaze of glory and I felt disappointed to realize that his death would be attributed to something like old age. My character ended up being a true low charisma follower who idolized that Gnome and I was excited for the idea of him dying because it could send Nuhnuh into vengeance but now there is nothing to be vengeful about so I feel like the character just stagnated and I no longer have any ambition to play her.

All of that being said, I obviously really enjoyed the time our characters spent together. It is unfortunate that there was such a lack of climax. I'm sorry to see him go.

I really hope that our future character's cross paths because Nuhnuh and Point had way too much chemistry

Omg I didn't see him dying yet

This seems really cool. Is this still going on?