PvP Escalation / Etiquette Reminder

[Spiffy Has]

DoctorDragon, while you are entitled to your opinion, I think I see you stepping out of line.

The servers mysteries are still there to be explored. I personally still have no idea about the following:

Who is the king?

What was the purpose of the Machine?

What is the nature of the Old Stones Curse?

The "Last" keep?

How did the Second Shrouding effect Old Port?

Is the Grandmaster really an illithid?

Why is H'bala trying to destroy all this?

Who the fuck is Muskroot?

Who is Howland and where can I meet him?

The Guardians of the Mist...

The List goes on.

There are still mysteries to explore, things to discover, people to meet and plots to unravel. The jaded tones of Plum and DrD really are inapplicable here, sure you might know more about the setting than I do, but why are you saying this is the case for everyone where mystery is no longer present and intrigue no longer has a place?

Who are you to speak for me?

The server is as dynamic as ever, and the server is in flux at the moment with several key figures entering and a few leaving the scene due to various events. I encourage everyone to continue to pursue their plots with as much zeal as ever, and consider solving problems for a change not with a dice roll, but with a conflict oriented ideal that is battled in the arena of politics or knowledge.

[Big Orc Man]

Some of the most influential and successful characters have never won a solid PVP fight.

They have strong henchmen, or they manipulate their way around battles, or they simply escape.

It's very easy to get locked into the mindset of "I must quest and become strong so that "I" (my character) will be invincible and I can do cool stuff".

Problem is, the stronger a character gets, the more likely a player seems to be to be reckless in battle with said character.  With a few exceptions, having a "strong" character does not really guarantee much more survival (beyond a reasonable amount.  Obviously an 8 CON elf will have problems).

If you don't like PVP battles, or you're bad at them, or you simply want to try something else, start thinking of every PVP battle as lost from the start, and do your best to escape/ameliorate/etc.

[Aethereal]

You weren't here for the underdark so please don't try to convince vets like me, and plum who know what we are talking about when we say this is not EFU.

I fear nostalgia is just a branch of emotion (arguably tends towards being illogical and irrational), far be it from me to tell you how to feel or not, it was hardly what I was trying to convey. There is no harm in being nostalgic of an experience you once knew, but if you refrain from changing your mindset and wallow away in the dreams of yore, you will only recreate your expectations regarding the present and future.

[Halfbrood]

Off topic - This is no EFU, no. But I fear you entitled players forget that we have still put hundreds of man hours into entertaining you all. It is rather offensive to be told the server you have worked on is terrible. If you have no desire to make it a better place, more in line with previous versions, and want to simply complain on the forums instead; well, perhaps this server doesn't hold what you want anymore.

[Howlando]

Look, PvP is and has been and always will be a tricky issue.

One thing I will say definitively, and that is the DM TEAM DOES NOT LOOK TO ACTIVELY REWARD PVP BASED CHARACTERS OVER OTHER ONES. To be honest, guys, mostly the DM team is just lazy (busy? exhausted?) and rewards PCs based off of having time to reward and noticing them doing interesting things (whatever that may be). Playing an excellent character (see rock my socks, characterization threads, etc.) that is just around a lot and goes on DM events and so on will eventually get "rewarded" (whatever that means - custom loot I suppose, which seems like a silly thing to try to be playing for). But please, players, just relax a bit about the idea that DMs can manage to pay attention to every incident and uniformly passes judgment on how neat your character is - the team does its best, and tries to keep the server running, but your primary motivation should be your own enjoyment and satisfaction - not recognition from others.

So PvP, well - it's hard to balance because in my view you have to get the right balance between choosing more interesting methods of conflict (and there are many) and not rushing to FD someone (important) vs. the reality that sometimes in our harsh and grim server sometimes characters just "need to get got."


But actually now I'm rushing in to comment, from the perspective of someone who is admittedly not really active at the moment, because I find the EFU nostalgia demonstrated here to be extremely silly.

Regarding PvP, I'm confident to say that EFU was the worst in terms of PvP causing problems and hurt feelings. For example, a quick and very cursory glance at the old EFU forums reveal that we documented no less than 7 pvp related issues with Dr Dragon (some of which led to his temporary banning). So I'm sorry for it to be necessary to bring it up, but as a useful exercise in demonstrating how misleading nostalgia can be, here's just one quote from your "record" Dr. Dragon...

Yeah, on Dr Dragon the ban came from repeated offenses over a period of time. Mainly repeated metagaming of NPC watchmen and PvP infront of them (x4, all with warnings and explanations), metagaming NPCs in different manners, repeated full and ninja looting of downed characters he had no involvement in the combat with, with different characters (with repeated warnings). The ban came as a result of the last episode of ninja looting in which he was directly told to drop everything he had and stop looting. He remained in the area to attempt to loot again and was stopped a total of 2 more times after the OOC DM warning. Yes looting is not a bannable offense, but ninja looting while people are in combat over defending the body he is looting is a no go.

And yes, he has caused be no end of trouble and grief in dealing with him over the last month or so. This last offense was it for me in a long list of offenses.

Now of course you've grown up a lot in the years since then, Dr Dragon, and it's been great to see your increased maturity as a player and human being. But to come in this thread as an inactive player, insult other players and say that EFU was some kind of golden age of PvP courtesy (when your own record reveals it was anything but; indeed it was a much harsher time with more headaches for DMs) struck me as sort of earth-shatteringly absurd.


In terms of setting lore/mysteries, all I will say for now is that the setting remains the same regardless of chapter actually and that all of you, whether you realize it or not, are part of one continuous story and that understanding the nuances and details of this story is something I encourage you to do.