Flesh out the "Side Areas" and Quests

[Valo56]

EfU has always impressed me not only with its quality of writing and community, but of the areas in the module. They're well designed and there's always something new to discover. However, I find the areas presently in EfU's underdark to be lacking in the diversity that I loved so much on Ymph. To an extent this is to be expected, yet I feel that with expansion of the Lowerdark, Shroomstalk, Moldmire and perhaps the Hidden Pond (or whatever that area above and behind the trolls quest is), the general quality of the environment will be increased tremendously.

To illustrate just how immense the old setting was compared to this one, to get from Upper Sanctuary's Freedom Square to Ysinode, you're going to have to transition about 7 or 8 times. The areas you pass through on this journey will generally look the same - grey stone interspersed by the lava in the Badlands. To get from the Mistlocke Square to H'bala's tower (no Pass of Rabbanatha as teleportation defeats the purpose of illustrating the size of the setting) you'd have to transition probably about 15-18 times, just going off of memory. You will start in the Forgotten Forest, traverse the desert, climb the side of a mountain, pass through the woodlands on the side of that mountain, pass through a series of caves, come out the other side and have a chance to visit Ilythiiri Ruins, traverse some swamps, and finally arrive in a withered forest with H'bala's tower a stone's throw away from you.

Part of me suspects this is a part of the reason why we used to have such a robust "Team Nature," (not that this "team" was ever particularly united, I simply use the common terminology) while now I was amazed to actually see a druid today. Obviously it's not the entire reason and these things tend to come and go, but I think it's fair to say that "nature" has not been a common component of that many concepts in EfU compared to previous chapters.

Furthermore I think it would be fitting if we reused a few of the old quests. Between EfU:A and EfU:M we reused some quests, such as the granary and orcs, despite changing the location and NPC's involved. There are several old quests that I think would be very fitting in the current setting. There's even at least two quests that came from EfUM to EfUR (one of which having been with us since EfUA).

-Wolves Part 2: With a ranger, the defend the rothe quest could be expanded to visit the old Wolves Part 2 quest by tracking the pack back to the Moldmire from which they seem to come from anyway.
-Shadow Canyon: Have this be the first part of the Maze quest, perhaps?
-Goblin Spirit/Save Lucinda: This would be a great little lowbie quest, perhaps in Lower.
-Sewer Goblins quest from EfU:A (part 1 and 2) would be nice to see return.

This all assumes that old versions of EfU that have these quests can be accessed so that these quests can be reintroduced somehow with whatever changes are deemed necessary in terms of loot/appearance/enemies. The appearance of more multi-part quests in general would be very nice. After all, when characters form groups they tend to go on multiple quests, and keeping them on a string of quests that have a common narrative is better than them going on a disjointed series of quests throughout an afternoon. (And yes, you could say "quest trains are bad" but at the end of the day, quests are fun and a huge part of the appeal behind EfU.)

[Saturnalia]

EFUA and M were pretty great for nature, and for some reason that seems to have died down a lot in this chapter as far as I have experienced. The Ark is a fantastic pile of lore, internal and external conflict, and insanely practical. But for some reason even after getting that far, the attrition is really high. I've personally inducted four Stewards and they all have disappeared due to what I can only assume is players dropping them in favor of Sanctuary based characters. And that's not to mention the problem with Guardians.

Maybe its just that the server is small enough that the wilds have a "seen that, done that" attitude. Ymph was immense. But I can also understand the desire to keep everyone close enough to increase the chances of bumping into conflicts.

With the Society War, Final Sanctuary, Cult War, etc. in my opinion the wilderness has been pushed to a backwater, and that is really unfortunate.

[Valo56]

Having played a druid recently who went far and away from the more typical paths and focused on exploration, I found a lot more to the server than I thought there was. I would still like to see the areas nearer to Sanctuary be expanded somewhat (particularly the Moldmire), but my original post wasn't as fair or informed as it ought to have been, sorry. It was an impressive experience out there on the frontier.

[Howlando]

I plan on working on this suggestion when time allows, but I will clarify that there are certainly more areas to explore in EFU:R than EFU:M.