Forming parties

[AgentCooper]

Hey folks,
 
I've just started playing on this server and noticed a few differences from the servers I played on before. Most notably I noticed that people dont seem to form parties in the way I am accustomed to. I noticed that when a group of us were making a long journey through the forest, no one invited or joined a party but I noticed that area buffs like bless affected everyone in the group.
 
Another time when a few of us went on a scripted quest, when I spoke to the quest giver, I recieved a message about all the members present being now part of a party while at the same time I did not see a list of portraits under mine like I am used to seeing on other servers.
 
So my question is, do people use regular parties like I am used to seeing? Should I bother inviting PC's to a party if I want to say explore the wilds? Or is just being in close proximity considered a party?
 
Anyway, I hope Im making sense. Thanks for any replys and I really like the server so far. See alot of familiar names too. Peace!

[Mist Rider]

Parties have been disabled.

[Spiffy Has]

Parties were disabled because frankly no parties are cooler and dms don't need to worry about party chat spam anymore....and a lot of other reasons.

[Coldburn]

You also can't metagame party members' hit points and attack bonus, whether they're diseased or poisoned (okay, this one's flimsy!), or locations. I remember it took me a week or two to get realised to it, but it's a very smooth proces once you're accustomed to it.

Party-wide effects that only affect 'friendly (N)PCs' now affect 'neutral' as well; so you can use Bless and Bard Song to your heart's content while not affecting enemies. If you want to PvP someone just remember to set them to hostile first.

Secondly, the quest-givers will give out the quest to all people with a short vicinity of the quest giver (about the range of a Fireball's AoE), as long as the quest requirements are met; i.e. between a certain level range and party limit. If it fails it's because there's someone in the immediate area who can not join, because he falls outside the party limit or level parameters, or already did the quest. The quest-taker/ leader will be assigned a widget to invite others, or you can talk to the quest giver when the stragglers are in his range.

For seeing HP just TAB or mouse-over to check his Injured/ Near Death Status, and for seeing if someone's diseased/ poisoned you can use the command /c diagnose , based on a Heal Check.

While on that topic, it's good to familiarise with these commands. /c help is a good start!

Enjoy!

[AgentCooper]

It all makes sense now. Thanks for the replies. Cheers!

[Doctor Mambo]

This threw me at first, too, fwiw.

[SanTelmo]

good replies